366 APPENDIX 



its own vocabulary. There is a farm vocabulary, and it is 

 essential that the children should learn to use it accurately 

 and intelligently. The home life should dictate the point of 

 departure, and the community vocabulary should be utilized. 

 The assignments may from day to day call for lists of ten 

 or twenty words covering the entire range of life in the 

 community. The teacher may ask the class to hand in a 

 list of ten words that are names of kitchen utensils. Suppose 

 there are five children in the class and the teacher finds that 

 twenty different words have been named. Such a device 

 furnishes the fairest test of the child's ability to spell these 

 words because he suggests them to himself and is not aided 

 by having them pronounced. The teacher should correct 

 the lists and hand them back. Then the list of the twenty 

 different words should be used as a spelling lesson and made 

 a part of a permanent list, the words in which are not to be 

 repeated in the future exercises of making a community vo- 

 cabulary. Then, in turn, lists in other of the home depart- 

 ments, lists in all the industrial departments covering every 

 phase of farm life, lists covering the vocabulary of the social j 

 the civil or governmental, the religious, and the school life of 

 the community should be made. Spelling may thus become 

 a usable tool for the child. 



The assignment may take another form and accomplish 

 the same purpose. Suppose the teacher has it in mind to 

 teach inductively the definition of synonym. He may write 

 the following assignment on the board : 



Farmer; grower; cultivator; agriculturist; husbandman. 



1. Pronounce these words. 



2. Give the meaning of each. 



3. Use one of these words in a sentence. 



