Inquiries and Answers 219 



have something from one's own experience to 

 say. Assigned topics are usually "hard" at 

 best. Let the child write of what it has seen 

 or done that day or yesterday the butterfly, 

 the tadpoles in the pond near by, the plants 

 growing in its garden, the fish in the aquarium, 

 the peaches on the tree by the barn, the little 

 world of life in the terrarium, the woodchuck 

 that lives under the stone fence, the things it 

 saw in the market, the vehicles it sees on the 

 street, the factories and farms near by, the field 

 work, the house work, the school, the highway, 

 the hill, the kinds of fences by the way, the 

 collecting expeditions and the games. If the 

 child has had no such experience, why not be- 

 gin by assigning him a living topic to look up 

 and report on in writing? 



We need to be unusually careful to see that 

 the writing is not exotic to the child. Avoid 

 the model of nature-study "stories" and "write- 

 ups" about things; these stories tell what others 

 have found out. They may inform and in- 

 struct and entertain, rather than educate and 

 set the child to work. 



