The "Quincy methods" illustrated. Pen photographs from the Quincy schools

Front matter

The'' ' Qui15y Method S' ' Illustrate:

kIDGE

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME PROM THE

Section I. The First Tear's Work Begun

CHAPTER

I. — Prblimbstabt: The First "Work of the Teacher, 1

Development of Thought and Expression.— The Unity of School-work. — Grouping.— The Training of Attention. —Busy- Work.— Physical Education.— Technical Skill.— Moral Training.

n.— The First Day m School [In Detail], . . . H

Contrast between the Old Ways and the Xew.— The Gathering of the Children.— Taking the Names.— The Opening Exercise.- A Language Lesson.— Going Out to Recess and Returning. — Busy-Work, — ^Assigning Seats. — A March. — I'usy-Work. — ^The First Lesson; Conversation. — Dismissing.— Opening Exercises of the Afternoon. — ^Writing. — Drawing. — Busy- Work. — ^The First Picture Lesson. — Singing. — A General Exercise in Number. — An Object Lesson. — A Conversation. — Dismissal. — Notes and Comments.—Programs.

Section II

THE FIRST TEAR'S WORK GONTINUED. A SERIBS OF OBJECT LESSONS.

I.— A Body Lesson: Preparatory to Physiology.

A General Exercise, .... .... 49

II. — A Test Lesson in Number, 54

VI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

in.— An Impromptu Lesson on the Horse: The Be-

GiNNiNQ OF Zoology. A GtKneral Exercise, 60 IV.— Preparatory Exercises; and a Lesson on

Color, 64

v.— Two Lessons in Direction. General Exercises, 73

VI.— A First Lesson in Dimension, 81

VII.— A Plant Lesson: Introductory to Botany. A

VUI.— A Lesson upon Hills: Elementary Geography, 91

IS.— A Lesson upon Granite: The Beginning of

Mineralogy. A General Exercise, . . 97

X.— First Lessons in Form, 103

XI. — A Lesson upon Snow. A General Exercise. 113

SECTION III. I.— Preliminary: The Teaching of Reading, . . 119

II.— Reading: Teaching the First Word, .... 121

III.— Reading: Teaching the First Sentence, . . 128

rv.— Reading and Language Combined, 135

v.— Reading: Combination Lesson, 144

VI. — Reading: An Advanced Lesson in Script, . . 152 VII.— Reading: Transition from Script to Print, 162

VIII. — Reading: Exercises in Phonics, 168

IX.— Imitative Exercises, 176

Section IV. The First Year's Work Continued

I. — Preliminary: The Teaching of Language, . 187 n.— Language: Thinking Exercises, 190

CONTENTS. Vii

CBAPTER pagb

in.— Language: Cokversation Lessons, 197

IV.— Language : An Action Lesson. A General

Exercise, 208

V. — Language: Lessons upon a Picture, .... 214

Tbe First Lesson.— Plan o£ Six Succeeding Lessons.— The Eighth Lesson in Full.

VI. — Language: Story Lessons. General Exercises, 225

Section V. The First Year's Work Conoluded

L — PRET.rivnNARY, 247

The Teaching of Number; Technical Writing; Spelling; Drawing; and Modelling in Clay.

II.— Number Work. Two Lessons; with Illustrations Drawn by Pupils, 254

ni.— A Lesson in Technical Writing, A General

Exercise, 272

rv.— Two Spelling Lessons: The Word; and the

Sentence, 280

V. — A Drawing Lesson. A General Exercise, . 291 VI. — A Lesson in Modelling in Clay. A General

Exercise, 298

Vn. — A Singing Lesson. A General Exercise, . . 309

Preliminaiy: The Teaching of Singing.

Section VI. Tee Second Years Work Complete

I. —Preliminary, 323

The Teaching of Zoology, Botany, and Geography.— Reading. — Language. — Number.— Spelling.

n.— A Five Minute Lesson upon the Cow: Zoology, 380

VIII CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

III. — A Series of Plant Lessons: Botany, . . . 336

Making Plant Diaries.— A Lesson on the Bean-plant. — ^Another Lesson, the Leaf.

rv.— Several Lessons in Geography, 355

A First Lesson in Civil Geography. — Three Lussons in Structural Geography.

v.— Beading : A Lesson Involying a Case of Discipline. An Exercise in Imitation, . . . 371

The Lesson in Reading.— The Case of Discipline. — " Stories" Writton by the Children.— An Imitative Exercise.

VI.— Language Work, 397

(1) A Lesson with a Moral. — (3) Letter-writing. — (.3) " Talking vrith the Pencil."— (4) Object Lessons. — (5) Juvenile Weather Reports.— (6) A Child's Story. Specimen of Drawing by pupil.

Vn. — Two Lessons in Number, 428

An Early Lesson with Figures. — Picture Number Work. — One More Lesson with Figures.

Vin. — ^Penmanship: A Lesson in Tracing, .... 449

Preliminary: The Purpose of Tracing.- Samples of Penmanship and specimens of blackboard sketching.

IX. — A Lesson in Spelling, 462

X. — Drawing : A Lesson in Form, illustrated by . Designs and Drawings made by the Pupils, 468

Preliminary: The Motive and Plan of the Work.

XI. — An Exercise in Clay Modelling, with Copies

OF THE Children's Work, . , 477

Preliminary: The Use of Modelling in Clay.

Section VII. Teb Thibd Tears Work Complete

I. — Preliminary, 485

The Beginning of Arithmetic. — Supplementary Geography.

II.— Elementary Zoology: A Study of the Dog, . 488

Preliminary.- Three Descriptions of a Dog, written by the Pupils.

III. — A Lesson in Botany: The Blackberry, . . . 501

Preliminary. — Three Descriptions of the Blackberry -plant, written by the Pupils.

IV.— Supplementary Geography: Robinson Crusoe, 519 v.— An Exercise in Sight Reading; A Recitation, 534

Preliminary.— The Exercise in Reading.- The Recitation.

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTBR PAGE

VI.— Language Lessons and Papers, 560

PreUminary. — (1) A Thinking Game. — (3) A Conversation Lesson.—(3) Children's Talk with the Pencil:— " What I Did at Recess"; "What I Did this Noon"; "The Pig's Party."—(4) An Action Lesson. — (5) Three Picture "Stories," "written by the Pupils.— (6) "Little Red Riding Hood. "—(7) ALetter.— (8) Three Descriptions of the Loon. — Preliminary to Fourth Tear's Work. — Papers written by Pupils. — (1) Description of a Duck. — (3) Description of the Horse.— (3) Description of "The Chair and The Lady."— (4) "The Battle."— (5) "The Bear and the Man."— (6) " What I am Thinking About."

VII.— A Lesson in Arithmetic, and a Case op Discipline, 593

Vin.— Some Spelling and its Examtnation, .... 609

Preliminary. — Giving out the Lesson.— Studying the Lesson.— Spelling the Lesson.— The Examination.— The Next Lesson.- Another Lesson in Spelling.

SECTION VIII. I. — Preliminary, 625

The Teaching of Arithmetic— The Course in Geography.

II. — ^Arithmetic: Practice Work, 631

III.- -Geography and History: A Combination

Lesson, 641

IV.- -Conclusion, 657

Should always be read and studied in connection with Col. F. W. Parker's

" Talks on Teaching."

The former contains the actual practice in the School-room of which the latter is the theory. Twenty-one thousand copies of " Talks on Teaching " have been placed in the hands of American teachers. hed

Price, $1.09, postpaid.

Address,

E. L. KELLOGG 6- CO.,

EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHERS.,

25 Clinton Place, N. Y.

IKTEODITOTIOir.

THE two words "Quincy Methods" have stirred up a most remarkable discussion among American teachers. Quincy, a suburb of Boston, only known before as the home of the Adamses, the Quincys, and for the production of a superior kind of granite, rose to fame solely through its schools. The School Committee of Quincy, of which Charles Francis Adams, Jr., was a member, it appears, had arrived at the conclusion that they needed as superintendent some one who comprehended the problem of rightly ministering to the mental and moral growth of childhood, and appointed to that post Col. Francis W. Parker, who had just returned from a two-years course in pedagogics and philosophy in Germany.

Under the direction of Col. Parker the schools underwent a remarkable transformation. In the words of Hon. J. W. Dickinson, Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, "In less than a year after they were placed under the charge of Col. F. W. Parker the teachers had become indoctrinated with his ideas and methods, and in consequence the schools were wonderfully transformed. The primary schools deserve especial mention. I made a careful comparison of their methods, and the results obtained with those of the best primary-schools I knew in town or city, and Was surprised at the great superiority of the Quincy work."

The reconstruction of the Quincy schools caused them to be visited by thousands of earnest teachers ; leading journals sent correspondents to describe the work at length. In 1879 a series of " Quincy Letters," from the pen of Mrs. S. C. P. Hallowell, appeared in the Philadelphia Ledger, and attracted wide-spread attention. Especially upon me these graphic sketches produced a profound impression. A graduate of a Massachusetts Normal School ; a teacher of teachers for years, first in the Philadelphia Normal School, and later in the Teachers' Institutes of Pennsylvania, I had been forced to the conclusion that the results of the methods employed in our schools were ex-

Xll INTRODUCTION.

ceedingly barren, to say the least. I turned for light to the writings of that greatest of modern educators, Froebel, and through a course of Kindergarten training began to obtain an insight into the possibilities and necessities of child-nature. The address made by Col. Parker before the National Educational Association at Chautauqua marked him in my mind and that of many others, not merely as the "coming educator," but as the educator who. had come, and was already doing his work among us. In the following September (1880) I went to Quincy to see what that work was.

There I found the ordinary Primary schoolroom — the common appurtenances, the usual number of pupils under the charge of a teacher, but teaching of a remarkable character. It was development, not acquisition ; growth, instead of accretion. It was the gaining of strength, mental, moral, and physical, through self- activity. It was education by work, using work as a distinct moral agent; not for its own sake, but for the sake of the children doing it. In fact the teaching was the teaching of the Kindergarten. A few weeks' observation of the schools decided me to study this new and attractive phase of education. After filling my Institute engagements I became the following year a member of Col. Parker's class in Didactics at Martha's Vineyard. The insight into the theory thus gained, made me still more desirous to watch the practice, and at the opening of the school year of 1881 I wag again in Quincy, and through the kindness of Superintendent Brown (Col. Parker having been appointed a supervisor of the Boston schools), I was permitted to attend the sessions of the Training Class, also the weekly meetings of the teachers. These advantages, added to assiduous visiting of the schools themselves, gave me materials for copious notes, and at the end of my stay I was rich in sketches of the Quincy work.

Returning to my Institute work, I was called upon to tell what I had seen and heard in Quincy. I found that there were multitudes of teachers who were disappointed with the results of their hard but unsatLsfaotory labors, and were anxious to know of better ways.

To them I presented the distinguishing features of the Quincy work:

1. The joyous life of the schools and the comradeship of teacher and pupils. 8. By grouping their pupils (in the lower grades) they obtained many of the benefits of individual teaching.

3. The skillful use of a great amount and variety of " Busy-Work."

4. Lessons in subjects not usually taught— Drawing, Modeling, Form, Color Natural Histoiy, etc.

INTRODUCTION. xiii

5. The constant use of Drawing as a means of expression.

6. Use of text-books as repositories of knowledge.

7. Amount and variety of Supplementary Reading.

8. Substitution of the expression of original thought on the part of the pupils for the old-fashioned memoriter recitation.

9. Carefully varied programme, wlwse order was known only to the teacher.

10. The atmosphere of happy work which encompassed teachers and pupils.

11. Disorder not worrying the teacher and wasting her time. .

12. The confidence, courtesy, and respect characterizing the attitude not only of pupils to teacher, but teacher to pupils.

13. The absence of scolding, snubbing, or spying.

14. The dignity, self-possession, and lack of self -consciousness of pupils.

15. The making of the child the objective point, and not Courses of Study, examinations, or promotions.

16. The great economy, naturalness, and practicability of the devices employed.

17. The marked attention paid to the so-called dull pupils. 18.. The evident growth of moral power.

19. The remarkable skill of the teachers evidencing their comprehension of underlying principles.

20. The wonderful originality and individuality of the teachers— none being imitators; the devices used varying from day to day.

21. The high ideal set before the teachers by the Superintendent, and their hearty co-operation with him in striving to attain it.

23. The absence of machinery, and the absolute freedom from any fixed or prescribed mode of work, each teacher being encouraged to invent and try any device not violating fundamental laws.

23. Examinations aimed to test the teacher's power to teach.

34. Examinations such as to test the children's power to do, not their power to memorize.

It was harmonious education; — the moral and physical natures were recognized and trained along with the mental. There was that alternation of action which results in pleasing and useful variety of work and play. There, too, was the unceasing training in good habits, the unremitting exercise of the better nature and the noblest impulses. It was, in brief, child-gardening. Set to tend the human plants" placed in the sunshine of their school-rooms, these teachers sought to learn the divine laws which governed their development, and watched each mind to see what helped or hindered growth. Hence the dull children, like backward plants, received most care and pains. It is true that the pupils were taught to read and write, and ultimately to cipher; that is, the form of the work done belonged to the old education, but the ideal being no longer the gaining of skill and knowledge, but the higher one of growth, the spirit in which it was done was of the new. The old order seemed literally to have passed away, and a new atmosphere of xiv INTRODUCTION.

euthusiastic but normal activity filled these scliools ; a new attraction held these happy pupils, self-poised, self-controlled, all in their places -without jar or effort.

The interest manifested by my audiences was both encouraging and significant; but I doubted if ray listeners could improve their schools from the outlines I had given them. To aid them practically I felt that I must know more of Quincy myself. So I decided to return to Quincy at the close of the Institute season for further study. In February, 1882, Mr. Amos M. Kellogg, editor of the New York School Journal, proposed the preparation of a book which should consist of sketches of actual lessons taken directly from the school-i-ooms of Quincy. Had the requirement been for a book on the philosophy of teaching I should never have entertained the proposal ; but I thought I could be eyes and ears for such as could not go to Quiucy to see and hear for themselves, and consented to try to prepare a book. To accumulate the needed materials I spent the ensuing soring in Quincy, taking reports of lessons, and the summer following I attended Col. Parker's second course of lectures on Didactics at Martha's Vineyard.

Listening day after day, note-book in hand, to those wonderful "Talks on Teaching," the highest expression of pedagogical truth ever uttered in this couniiy, it occurred to me that the publication of my notes of these lectures (the principles of the Quincy teaching) would fitly precede the coming book of practice.

To this suggestion Col. Parker generously replied: "The notes are yours — do with them what you will ; but I must first revise before I can endorse." Though laboring like a giant in his new field of work — the principalship of the Cook County Normal School, Chicago — the proposed revision became really a re-writing, and the book proved to be more his " Talks" than any " Notes" of mine. But he chose that the title should be what it is. " Talks on Teaching" being finished, I spent the remainder of the school year taking reports of lessons in Quincy. During the summer I attended Col. Parker's third and last course of lectures upon Didactics. In September, 1883, I went to Normal Park, where I had been appointed a member of the Faculty of the Normal School. Here I knew I could best arrange the immense mass of material gathered in my five visits to Quincy, because I should be surrounded with the Quincy atmosphere, and could watch the Quincy work in its latest phase of development.

The great labor of selecting, arranging, and writing out my

INTRODUCTION. XV

voluminous reports of lessous resulted in over-work and ill- health; hence the delay in the appearance of the book. It was planned at first to include the teaching of the whole eight years in one volume, but this was found to be impossible, and the four primary years only are given. The remaining material, illustrating the work of the grammar grades, may form another volume, should health and the pressure of other duties permit,

LELIA E. PATRIDGE.

Cook County Normal School, KoauAL Faak, III.

EXPLAE^ATORY.

1. These lessons should not be copied. "Imitation never leads to creation."— OoZ. Parker. The teachers of Quincy achieved remaikable results because they studied how mind grows and invented their own "methods," instead of copying those of others. Do not

COPY.

2. The "Purpose of the Lessons" is given to enable inexperienced teachers to discern the steady leading toward the main thought, and the skilful introduction of minor points.

3. Special preparation for daily lessons by the teacher is an indispensable element of success. For the purpose of calling attention to this important part of teaching, detailed mention is made of the work done previous to each lesson.

4. By " Preparation of Lessons" by children too young to study books, is meant what is already in the mind of the pupils. The teacher must know the pupils' previous knowledge of the subject. The teachers must begin where tlie children are, in order to take the right length of step to connect the known with the unknown.

5. As the making out of plans of lessons is a most difficult thing, the teacher's statement of what she proposes to do step by step, is placed before every lesson. It will be observed that while the general arrangement is always carried out, unimportant details are often changed ; because the true teacJier follows her pupils while she leads tJiein.

6. The " Notes and Comments" are generally intended to lead the reader to observe what might otherwise be overlooked.

7. To avoid embarrassing personalities no real names or true initials are given in the book, except those of Mr. Shatluck and Mr. Carter. Even the names of the different schools are ch;inged. All teachers of the First Grade are designated either as Miss B, or Mrs. C. ; those of the Second Grade as Miss D. ; of the Third Grade as Miss E., and of the Fourth Grade as Miss P.

8. Let no teacher who tries these new ways and finds her first work unsatisfactory be discouraged. All beginnings will be crude. If the tendency of the teaching be right, success must eventually crown her efforts; for the teacher who teaches from the stand-point of rightly ministering to child-growth works with the Creator.

THE "QUINCY METHODS" ILLUSTRATED.