AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 383 



desk with pencil on unruled, paper, tlie copy being still written 

 on the board. When all had reached this stage, concert arm and 

 finger movements were taught. During the second and third 

 years the forms of the letters and combining strokes were ana- 

 lyzed, and each drawn on a large scale to accurate measurements. 



The children saw no misspelled words, and were not asked to 

 spell or write isolated words. During the first and second years 

 they usually had a copy from which they wrote. In the third 

 year they wrote original exercises. They were told to ask, when 

 not sure how to write a word. The word was written on the 

 board : no effort was made to have them think how a word should 

 look, no matter how many times they had seen it written and 

 printed. 



Work in the natural and physical sciences, starting with broad 

 conceptions, was carried forward along various lines, care being 

 taken to show relations, and to lead the children to regard them- 

 selves as a part of nature. In mineralogy and geology, the pav- 

 ing, building, and ornamental stones most used in Boston; the 

 ores of the principal metals, and their products ; graphite and the 

 making of pencils ; gypsum and halite, were studied, each child 

 getting his knowledge from specimens before him. Each was 

 furnished with a testing outfit, including what a field geologist 

 commonly carries, except the blowpipe and reagents to use with 

 it ; and these children from six to ten soon learned to use the 

 outfit with as much skill as any adults whom I have taught. 



In physics, lessons were given on extension and gravity ; on 

 the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of matter; on heat as the 

 force producing expansion and contraction ; on the evaporation, 

 condensation, and freezing of water, with results in dew, clouds, 

 rain, snow, and the disintegration of rocks ; on movements of air 

 as agents producing wind and storms ; on the thermometer ; on 

 magnets, and two of their uses. In chemistry, lessons were given 

 on air and its composition ; on combustion and its products ; on 

 iron rust as to formation, and effects on iron ; on CO3 as an ingre- 

 dient of calcite, and a product of breathing ; on acids as tests for 

 lime rocks containing CO2 ; on the distinction between physical 

 and chemical changes. In astronomy, a few lessons were given 

 on the relations of sun and earth as causing day and night and 

 the seasons. 



Botany was pursued in the fall and spring months. In the 

 spring the children planted a window garden, from which they 

 drew plants for the study of germination and growtli. From 

 garden and wild plants they studied buds and their developments, 

 and the forms, parts, and uses of some leaves, flowers, and fruits. 

 A series of lessons on plants yielding textile fabrics and the man- 

 ufactures from them was projected ; but, owing to the difficulty 



