Morning exercises for all the year : a day book for teachers

Preface

This book aims at a systematic and orderly presentation of the morning or opening exercise in the elementary school. Material is provided for every day of the school year, beginning with the first day in September and ending with the last day in June. There are as many exercises as there are days in the month, thus leaving the teacher free to a choice of lesson each day. If she feels that the psychological moment has arrived to consider a certain topic with her school she need not necessarily follow the subject outlined for that particular day.

It is the author's belief that the time has come for a more earnest consideration of moral training and that the teaching of morals can usually be accomplished more effectively through an indirect method than by set lessons or formal teaching. Character is largely a matter of habit and too great emphasis cannot be placed upon the early training in right attitude and right conduct. The choice of subjects should be more or less incidental. When certain events occur in the life of the nation or society which have ethical value, or when the birthdays of famous poets or statesmen or those of national heroes revive the memory of their virtues, the topic of the lesson is naturally determined thereby. Through concrete examples presented in story and verse the children learn to appreciate and admire nobility of character and deed and their best aspirations are thus aroused. But it is better to allow the child to make his own inference than to force the moral upon him.

The arrangement of this book, it is believed, will be found convenient and the plan novel. It is truly a day book for the teacher, correlating as it does, memory work, narrative,

6 PREFACE

songs and music, birthday and holiday commemorations and those of the seasons, together with nature, literature, science and art.

Five lines of thought have been kept constantly in mind. First: The teaching of the common virtues through memory selections culled from the best in literature. There can be nothing better than the learning of these golden gems. Second: Through the story which is related to the quotation and the daily topic. Third : Through biography, using famous characters of history and literature to arouse ideals, to kindle ambition, and to nourish a belief in one's power to do something and to cultivate a sense of worth and a feeling of self-respect. Fourth: Through the song, which conforms daily to the thought of the lesson. Fifth : Through the references which allow an enlarging upon the subject in hand. These consist of songs, additional stories and poems, Bible readings, birthdays and special days. It is well to speak of the birthday of an author or other noted person on the day before its occurrence and ask the pupils to be able to tell something of interest in regard to the person the next morning. In the case of an author pupils should be asked to bring in to be read or recited one or more selections from his works. In that of an artist, show reproductions of some of his paintings. In that of a musician have one or more of his compositions played or sung.

J. C. S.