Ay EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 387 



thought well for each child to feel a breath from the mountains 

 above and beyond — a breath whose coolness and fragrance he 

 might feel without analysis or comprehension of its qualities. To 

 have felt was enough. So we paid no attention to ordinary poems 

 and tales for little children, but introduced the children at once 

 to Longfellow and Emerson, Wordsworth and Scott, Milton and 

 Shakespeare. 



There was regular study of history for each year. Copies of 

 early and late maps of Boston were given to each child ; the older 

 one was drawn on transparent paper, so as to be laid over the later 

 one and show directly the changes and extensions into river and 

 harbor. Colored crayon maps and pictures were used to illustrate 

 the historical narrative. These narratives were drawn mostly 

 from local events — as the settlement of Boston, with certain old 

 Boston worthies as centers, about whom incidents were grouped ; 

 the beginning of the Revolutionary War with a visit to the Wash- 

 ington elm at Cambridge ; some incidents of slavery and the civil 

 war connected with Garrison. Extracts from diaries, letters, etc., 

 were printed on leaflets and read by the children, who drew 

 their own inferences. These readings from original sources were 

 mostly confined to the third and fourth classes, as the language 

 used was too difficult for children of the first two years. Some- 

 times gratifying volunteer work was done ; as an instance, a boy 

 of eight learned the whole of " Paul Revere's Ride," and recited 

 it, standing at the blackboard and tracing on a colored map of 

 Boston and its surrounding townshij)s the route taken by the 

 rider. This work in history was done by Miss Nina Moore — Mrs. 

 F. B. Tiffany— who developed it with such skill as to fascinate 

 the children, and to lead to her publications on these topics. (See 

 articles in Common - school Education for September, October, 

 November, and December, 1888; and the books Pilgrims and 

 Puritans and From Colony to Commonwealth.) 



The industrial part of the experiment was started at the begin- 

 ning of the third year. Each child was provided with a bench 

 and ten tools — ruler, try-square, scratch-awl, saw, vise, plane, 

 chisel, brad - awl, hammer, nail - set. The children of the two 

 younger classes made a box with the cover hinged on with strips 

 of leather ; those of the two older, a case with shelves fitting into 

 grooves. The work was divided into steps ; each was mastered 

 before the next was tried. All the children began with the use of 

 the ruler in measurements to an eighth of an inch. The try-square 

 came next. As soon as a true line was drawn, the saw was used 

 to divide the board. After the first day no two children were ex- 

 actly together, each one's position depending on his own results. 

 The third step — the cross-cut saw — detained most of the children 

 several weeks ; a true cut with its face at right angles to each 



