2l6 



Graphic Methods in Teaching. 



[2 4 



at Kansas City, Mo. Two failures, caused by illness, 

 appear in her diagrams, and in this sense the work is 

 imperfect. This child made other and better reports and 

 was a graduate of the Class of 1887. For certain reasons 

 she was permitted to make her reports at 12 M. instead of 

 7 o'clock, but for such studies the morning hour is far 

 better. 



Of what value to the child is such work? In the first 

 place, the making of the diagram (printed forms should 

 never be used) is something in the way of mechanical 

 drawing that is a good training for the hand and eye. 

 Secondly, the diagram being fastened up on the wall in 

 some convenient place becomes a reminder of stated 

 work to be done at a fixed hour a capital training in 

 punctuality, promptness and precision. The use of a 

 thermometer is helpful, as it is in the nature of a tool, and 

 a tool is the one thing every child instinctively seeks. 

 Toys are only tools of sport. Next it may be noticed that 

 the observations must be made precisely at 7 o'clock, a first 

 rate discipline in exactness and the happy virtue of early 

 rising. The study of the wind and clouds calls him out 

 of doors, for the whole sky must be observed to decide 

 whether it is really clear or only fair or completely cloudy. 

 Every day these variable phenomena must be noted and 

 recorded, and pride is always taken by earnest students in 

 seeing the curious course of the temperature grow from 

 day to day through a whole month. 



The record having been, in the course of the month, 

 plotted on the diagram, then comes the development of the 

 curve of the temperature or the irregular line that graphi- 

 cally describes the changes as well as the progress of the 

 temperature. This work is also instructive and a useful 

 exercise in neatness and accuracy. The work done, the 

 child has two graphic statements of real phenomena in 

 nature observed by himself and so recorded that, at the end, 

 the entire work of the month is plainly seen. The curiously 



