AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION. 519 



At the beginning of tlie fourfh year a printing-press was 

 provided ; but each teacher furnished her own type, set it, and 

 did the printing for her class. During this year, after four 

 months of the new work, one division of Miss MacChesney's class 

 " completed the grade work in reading in three months, a thing 

 never before done at Englewood." Concerning this year Miss 

 MacChesney says further ; " From the experience which this year 

 has brought me, I am thoroughly convinced that, could the aver- 

 age child have from the first the results of his own observations 

 put in printed form, and enough of phonics to enable him to find 

 out new words, the reader could be withheld until the latter part 

 of the year, when it would be read with relish, and as a book 

 ought to be read. . . . The power gained by the children to ob- 

 serve closely, to tell clearly and concisely what they have observed, 

 and the power of logical, connected thinking is not confined to 

 their science and reading, but is felt in all the work of the school- 

 room. ... In looking back over the time since we began working 

 out this theory, I see a constant increase in the power of the 

 classes that have been led along this path." 



In regard to the influence of this work upon herself, Miss Mac- 

 Chesney, during the third year, wrote me, " At night I can hardly 

 wait the morning, so eager am I to begin another day, and see 

 how the children will go through the work planned for that day." 

 Here she reaches the true work of the teacher — to watch and 

 direct the growth of the children's minds. From letters received 

 from Miss MacChesney during 1889-90 I cull the following : " I 

 started out to try what seemed a theory of doubtful utility to 

 public-school children, and found all my work and my life en- 

 larged and beautified. ... I am certainly happier than I have 

 ever before been in teaching, and I know I am doing more for the 

 children intrusted to my care. . . . Mr. Bright, in oj*der to speak 

 with assurance about these matters, visited fifteen city teachers ; 

 and in no case did he find the attention of teachers or childrei; 

 directed to anything but the symbol, and in no case were the chil- 

 dren further advanced than ours where thought and symbol go 

 hand in hand. ... I did not meet with any opposition in the work. 

 The only requirement that I must meet was *the grade work 



ness the scenes in ten thousand slaughter-houses, and themselves be the victims of the 

 loathsome indifference to cruelty there practiced — shall this exist and pass uncondomned, 

 because its results are pleasant to the appetite of the body, and the cry of cruelty be raised 

 when a few hundred grasshoppers are killed for purposes of study ? Is the body of more 

 value than the mind, and nourishment more desirable than knowledge ? So long as slaughter- 

 houses exist, so long will it seem desirable to teach children reverence for animal life by 

 iTiinute personal study of the wonder and beauty of organ and function in the lower forms. 

 When slaughter-houses have been done away with forever, the human mind will find a bet- 

 ter way to teach zoology. Let the cry of cruelty go forth, but not from those whose own 

 flesh is built up from the flesh of their brute brethren. 



