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into the office and have not had time to study the course of study 
as fully as I would like to, but I want to say that I am very much 
pleased with it. It seems to me that you have done well in trying 
to adapt it to the needs of the children of the Islands. There are, 
however, two or three things that I may want to write about 
more fully when I have a little more time. 
'T am wondering if in all the lower grades you might want to 
combine nature study and geography. The two are so very much 
alike that the nature study can probably be done better as a part 
of the geography work, and the geography work will be enriched 
thereby. 
''The number work follows a plan very popular in many parts 
of the United States, but this plan has long seemed to me de- 
fective, while I feel quite sure that the subject can be taught 
more simply and effectively by giving the first half year to count- 
ing, and the second half year to counting by tens, so as to lay a 
foundation for the understanding of our decimal system of writ- 
ing, and writing numbers. The second year should be given to 
addition, subtraction and comparison, and the numbers dealt with 
should not be so narrowly limited. Children who learn to count, 
and to count by tens, can just as well do problems involving thou- 
sands and tens of thousands. The third year should be given to 
the facts of multiplication and their application in multiplication, 
division, fractions, and ratio. I do not believe it is well to attempt 
to teach the ordinary four processes at the same time. There are 
in fact seven processes ; the first three go together, and the second 
four, and they should be grouped thus in teaching. A long ex- 
perience has convinced me that much time may be saved and 
much power gained by teaching arithmetic in this way. 
"I do not clearly understand whether you expect technical 
grammar to be taught in the grades below the eighth. If you do, 
it seems to me that it is not best. Children as a rule do not un- 
derstand the generalizations, and an attempt to learn them stands 
in the way of their gaining a real mastery of language. 
''Spelling, of course, is best taught in the lower grades in con- 
nection with composition work. In the fourth and fifth grades 
there is need for a book that classifies words according to their 
spelling a little better than the one you mention. 
"I want to commend most heartily your plan of trying to base 
the development of language on the child's understanding of 
nature and occupations, the language thus growing out of its own 
experience. I wish also to commend your use of what you call 
national stories, also repeated stories and rhymes. I know noth- 
ing quite so good or useful in teaching language to small children 
as such stories as The old zvoman and her pig, The house that 
Jack built, etc. 
"I think Mr. Boykin's adverse criticism of the history work of 
the eighth grade is based on a misunderstanding of what you in- 
tended. I suppose that you intend to make the period of Ameri- 
can history designated the real history work of that year, and that 
