382 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sons tlie minds of tlie children were intent on the getting of ideas 

 and the expression of them. Direction to look or think again 

 usually sufficed to change vague, wordy expressions into clear, 

 terse ones by giving the child clear and accurate conceptions. 

 When the child's own vocabulary was exhausted, he was promptly 

 helped to words by classmates or teacher, the effort being to use 

 the speech of cultivated people. 



At first the reading could by no means keep pace with the 

 science lessons : from the mass of expressions obtained some were 

 selected for the reading and writing matter. With increase of 

 power to remember forms and combinations of letters and words, 

 the number of sentences was increased, until what was gained in 

 the science lessons was reproduced in the reading lessons. This 

 increase was rapid. From the first field lesson two sentences — 

 eleven words — only could be taken, while a field lesson near the 

 close of the second year yielded ninety-seven sentences — over 

 eleven hundred words. In the former the sentences were written 

 on the board and read every day for five weeks ; in the latter 

 they were taken down in pencil by the teacher as the children 

 gave them, arranged according to topics, printed, and presented 

 in the printed form for the first reading. There was little hesita- 

 tion in that reading, so vivid were the impressions from such a 

 day out-of-door. 



During the first year a little reading matter was drawn from 

 lessons in literature and history. This was gradually increased 

 during the second and third years. Still the sentences for read- 

 ing were taken chiefly from the science lessons, because there 

 could be more certainty of the child's having accurate and well- 

 defined ideas as the basis of each expression, and the sentences 

 could be more completely their own. In March of the first year 

 reading-books were introduced. At the first trial they took 

 Swinton's Easy Steps for Little Feet, and in twelve minutes read 

 a page-and-a-half story. Of their own accord they sought and 

 independently obtained from the context the meaning of all but 

 two of the unfamiliar words, and gave to express the meanings 

 either the exact words of the book or synonymous ones, for 

 which those of the book were substituted. After this they read 

 from books whenever such reading could be related to their other 

 work— not much otherwise. While the production by the chil- 

 dren of the bulk of their reading matter was a prominent feature, 

 this was not the object of the experiment but merely an adjunct 

 to the chief end in view. Nor were the science topics selected 

 with reference to the reading matter, but on their own merits, 

 mutual relations, and the capacities of the children. 



As soon as a child's writing on the blackboard could be read 

 by his classmates— copy being erased— he began to write at his 



