The Teachers Corner 



I do not believe that any teacher knows what a good time with her class 

 really is until she has studied a brook with them. This work should come 

 when the pupils are beginning their physical geography, — although there 

 are parts of it that may be used in earlier grades. "But" the teacher objects, — 

 "How am I to take a class out and not have a picnic instead of a study of 

 the brook?" There is one satisfactory answer to that. Plan the work 

 definitely. Put the questions given in the outline for studying the brook 

 on the black-board and have each pupil copy them in his note book and 

 demand results. You will not need to demand them for the children will 

 become so interested that they will stimulate each other. If you can not 

 study a brook for its full length go out for a Saturday with what pupils you 

 can and study a section of a brook. A fifth grade boy once sent me a set of 

 blue prints illustrating every phase of his brook. 



Before going out it would be well to use the following story as a reading 

 lesson. 



How A Stream Works and the Tools it Uses to Work With 



It is perfectly natural for water to be busy. There are so many things 

 about it which it is obliged to busy itself, — such as making clouds and fogs 

 and helping plants to grow. However, it is as a digger that we study it when 

 it is doing the work of a brook. 



When water is at the top of a mountain, or on any land higher than the 

 sea, it is not only in a hurry to get down to the sea level, but it always insists 

 on taking along as much land as it can carry. Water is always working to 

 level the surface of the earth; it not only tears down mountains, but it builds 

 up valleys. If we should follow almost any great river to its source we should 

 find that away up in the hills, somewhere, it began life as a little brook. And 

 it is as a brook then, that it commences to work. So, if we go out and observe 

 any brook and see how it works, we shall know how a creek or a great river 

 workp. 



First of all, the water of a stream is a most successful ditch digger; but 

 instead of throwing out the earth as it digs, as does man when he digs a ditch, 

 the water carries it all off down stream. From our standpoint there are 

 many strange things about the way water carries off dirt and gravel. 



When we have a load to carry we go very slowly; we have to. When we 

 wish to run swiftly we throw away all that we are carrying, so as not to be 

 weighted down. When college boys or high school boys run races they do 

 not even wear their ordinary clothing, but dress as lightly as possible, in 

 trunks and tights. They also train themselves severely so that they do not 

 have to carry any more flesh on their bones than is necessary. Now, with 

 a brook exactly the opposite is true. The faster it runs, the more it can carry, 

 and the heavier it gets, the faster it runs. 



We have noticed a brook just after a hard rain. We saw it hustling along 

 as fast as it could go; and we saw it was roily and muddy; we also saw that 

 it was much deeper and wider than usual. All this meant that the brook 

 was working very hard that morning. 



