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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1905)
PN TEXTBOOKS TOD) s r. am n mil afi. M" tumUWmumil V W 1 'Oil" nipiffi WIIL T77T fffiHRHEfc. hs I Ko CHILD may enter the TTnlveralty of Chicago at the age of 3 years and begin manual train ing Immediately. Before he knows how to count his baby fingers he can learn how to drive a nail straight and to use a saw capably. To the truth of this the work which has been done by the little boys and girls of the univer sity's elementary school bears witness. from the kindergarten to the eighth grade manual train ing Is regularly a part of the school's curriculum. It Is taught to all pupils. Irrespective of age or sex. So attractive Is this department made that older students take up the work, and both university girls and ladles of the faculty come here to make furniture and picture frames for their rooms and houses. The hand workif the children In the first grade centers about domestic life. The home is the child's natural starting point. It Is his vantage ground in the conquest of worlds unfamiliar. So he Is first taught how to build a house, to paint, decorate, and furnish It. In the details of his work he Is allowed to follow out his own Ideas. So long as he ex presses himself accurately he Is allowed to express himself s freely as he will. Many pleasant stories are told at' the university about the building of these houses. One boy Insisted on putting an elevator in his house, another one liked a ladder better than stairs. Several were In favor of dark attics, but one child refused to have any attic at all, because " only poor live In attics." A budding electrlclap brought a coll of wrapped wire dhildrcn maAmcr 7 17 T clou nov&esf X Jn J! nirjri r -Mi In &e I 4- . i 4 A! 1 6 J I i J- s 5" t , 7 to school with him In order to Install in his house an electrlo system. Another Insisted on fitting up his building as a Are engine house, with the upper story as a dormitory, from which the firemen could slide down by poles into the room below. Ponder Over Smallest Details. Every detail was a matter of supreme Importance to the children the shape, size, and color of the rugs that they wove, the design and coloring of the wall paper they made, the paWitlng of the building's exterior, and the staining of the wood Inside. Each one made simple wooden furniture for his own house. Some ambitious young architects Insisted upon the addition of bhlmneys and fireplaces modeled from clay. One morning the teacher was amased to have the children appear In a body, saying that they must have some paint for their kitchens, for " no decent kitchens were pa pered." " If the children do the work themselves they learn of necessity the use of tools," says Miss Elizabeth E. Langley of the manual training department of the elementary school. ' In the construction of their houses the children of the first trad made an Intelligent use of the ruler, the trysquare, a llane, a hammer, a crosscut saw. a keyhole saw, and an auger, and though they did not know the meaning of the word " construction " they nevertheless had gained an honest acorn for a house that ' wiggled ' and an honest respect for a house firm enough to sit on." Last year the third year harytwork was determined by the decision of the grade to adopt a hen. All the children set to work together to build a suitable chicken coop. By them selves they decided upon the shape and size of the house. They studied out the best way to make nests, perches, floor, and the wire fence Inclosure. It was not long before they faced a serious practical dlfflcufty. When they came to make their plans for the building they found that the simple out- i i lines which they knew how to draw would not suffice for so jt large a building as they were planning.' How did men draw ! plans for big buildings like those of the university, they I pondered T They could see that the plans, like pictures, must M be smaller than the buildings that they represented. But i' they could not see how to draw an outline so that different I' people working from it could make the various parts of the . whole fit together. But It all seemed easy enough after they learned that an Inch might be made to stand for a foot, j, J Make Miniature Trains of Cars. f Under th Influence of an interest which was quite as ! ,' genuine a this the fourth grade children built the " Unlver- ' ally of Chicago faat freight," a train of six oars, and thirty feat of track. So far as possible the children were kept to -real conditions. Before making their cars they spent a day In, vlalUnf oaf shopa; so that their cars did not seem tor them like toys but were real cars In miniature. Similarly, the seventh grade, who are making boats to illustrate methods of transportation by water, axs onetfucting litua models of i I liJ ' t - 1 - 1 T r-Trr 1 : if 1 v P&h&y-r&ie maps' the boats of various countries, and various periods. Tho "community work" in this and other departments of the institution Is a distinctive feature. CoSperative work ranges from the united efforts of two or three children In making the same article to the combination of a whole grade in the carrying out of the project. The more competent work men among the boys and girls are sometimes appointed as " captains of Industry," who shall supervise speclul portions of the work and special groups of workers. In this com munity" work the children take what one Instructor calls " a kind of intelligible and Justifiable civic pride." Each one knows that his work Is a contribution to the reputation of his room, and 'that it stands and falls in fair competition with the .work of his fallows The name ideas of reality, interest, and sympathy are the foundation of this whole educational system. The home and all that pertains thereto, the community life, and the child's retaAlon to It, furnish a practical basis for the work. in the first grade, for instance, food supplies and the Industries relating to them, comprise one of the subjects studied. There are no text books. The children are expected to learn from experience, in October of last year plans were made for a farm. The children desired to have a house, a barn, a mllkhouse. and a corn crib, all to be made of wood, and to be arranged upon a sand table In the schoolroom. Presently they add. d two fenoes, two wagons, bridges for the stream, and some Improvements upon both house and barn. One youngster suggested a "golf ground" as desir able. After the buildings were all laid out the children molded animals from clay for meadow and barn yard. Reproducing Colonial Environment. In the iamt' way the fourth grade studied the early col onial life of Virginia from a representation which they made, with cardboard, clay, and sticks, of the city of Jamestown and the surrounding country. They built also an Indian village, using birch bark, cardboard, sticks, and raffia. And finally they constructed a colonial house of that locality and period. Each child in the grade had his own part In the building, which had six rooms, and an attic, hardwood floors, fireplaces, outlying houses, and slave quarters. The furni ture was made of paper to the definite scale of an inch to a foot. Thus, throughout the school the children make their own tools, apparatus, and text books. snhe first grade pupil make dictionaries of new words they learn. Higher up, geography classes model relief maps out of sand. Little gardeners construct .their wheelbarrows and fashion trowel out of triangular pieces of wood, sharpened on the edges, and fitted with handles. Youthful foundrymen built their own smelting furnaces of clay. Infant potters put their , pieces of earthenware Into the kiln themselves. The Idea which Is back of all this theory put into practlo Is that, though the child must be fitted for a career, ka yet must have a childhood, with all the zest, the 1 enthusiasm, the eager looking forward which is 4he spontaneous expres sion of the Joy of living. In school he should be, not a mere pupil, molded from without; he should be a hunia. IMngi developed from withJh. 1