343 
'*8. Your course in nature study, introducing scientific experi- 
ments in Grade V, seems to be too advanced. . . 
(Note). In regard to the statement that the course of study 
seems too difficult it may be said that that depends upon how ex- 
haustively each subject is treated in the different grades. If 
larger or vital points of subjects are taken up and minor details 
left out the course is not so difficult as it may appear at first glance. 
The difficulty comes in attempting to teach too many things in the 
subjects not worth teaching. 
1. In answer to question "V I would say that the stories told 
in language work comprise stories of Hawaiian, Japanese and 
Chinese origin as well as those of English and German inheri- 
tance. In the first grade, for instance, we have "Kila, the Canoe 
Builder," tales from Hawaiian history, ''Hok Lee," Chinese, 'The 
Monkey and the Crab," Japanese, fairy tales from China and 
Japan, etc. Ano-lo-Saxon stories predominate to inculcate the 
ideas of our civilization. ^ 
2. Punctuation is part of writing and as the sentence is writ- 
ten on the board the child is familiarized with the necessary 
punctuation marks as with the words used. 
3. This criticism is just so far as the nature study program 
is set forth in the manual, but the s^fowing of plants, etc., is very 
generallv continued in school 2:ardenino^ and manual work. 
4. Illustrative work includes modeling in sand and clay, chalk 
modeling (land forms) on blackboards, pencil and crayon work, 
pen and ink work, painting in water colors, marking and dramati- 
zation, not with the idea of developing technical skill, to make 
working drawings or semi-scientific representations of objects, 
but to express thought through the organization of the child's 
powers. 
5. Nature Study and Geography in the lower grades do em- 
phasize the social side of the study very strongly as shown in the 
detailed outline of the course of study. 
6. The directions in the course which seem to require the 
teaching of formal grammar in the lower grades may be mis- 
leading but the intent and practice is only to familiarize the child 
with the terms and forms used in the study of grammar while 
in close connection with the expression of the thought, the natural 
way of learning the construction of language. While the direc- 
tion is to teach the possessive case, for instance, it is not intended 
that the child is to learn a grammatical definition or rule, but 
that he is led to observe its form and while the teacher calls his 
attention to this the proper term may be used, "possessive," and 
so with other grammatical terms, as noun, verb, phrase, sentence, 
etc. When speaking of words there is no more reason why the 
teacher should not use the proper term than there is when he is 
talking of numbers and uses the term divisor, multiplier or sub- 
trahend. In this way the child is familiarized with the forms of 
grammar by hearing them when attention to them is necessary, 
all through the grades. In the sixth and seventh grades, children 
