8 METHODS IN TEACHING 



" Then through the moss and grasses, 



They were compelled to roam, 

 Until a brooklet found them 

 And carried them all home." 



The description of the home, the journey, the breakdown 

 of the carriage, the run home again, can be made most inter- 

 esting first in story form. The poem is then welcomed with 

 delight; difficulties in meanings and constructions vanish; 

 memorizing is almost without effort. Formal and formative 

 studies on a poem should be kept distinct. While a child's 

 mind is absorbed in the journey of the raindrops in their 

 cloud carriage from the ocean over the land, down the brook, 

 and back home to the sea, it should not be confused and 

 distracted by a search for definitions of " happened " or 

 " agree." If the meaning is understood the enjoyment 

 should be unalloyed ; later, there can be taken up studies of 

 words, constructions, and reproductions, when the mind 

 may find in these more formal studies a pleasure equally as 

 great as that given by the poem itself. Synonyms can be 

 given and used. Five or ten minute drills two or three times 

 a week in word exercises are invaluable, giving surprising 

 results. 



The reviews of poems and stories should be tactfully ar- 

 ranged, so that they do not become tedious. By this means, 



memory and power are fostered. The dra- 

 Dramatic , , j c- 1 



Element matic element can be preserved. Simple 



acting by the children, even of the stories 

 given early in the first year, is very enjoyable, and it serves 

 to emphasize action and to vivify concepts. 



