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An Autobiography of O.A. McFarland
- Part XI -
What I Saw in a County School.
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BY SUPT. O.A. M'FARLAND.
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The live teacher does a vast amount of good in the world. His work and his worth should be recognized. By a live teacher, as the term is here used, we mean a teacher who thinks, reads, and acts, and who has in a marked degree, the ability to make his pupils read, think and act. The live teacher realizes the true dignity of his calling: he sees in every childish face the reflection of an indwelling spirit, which only a master hand can fashion so as to bring forth all the hidden powers of mind and heart; and with a steadfast purpose he labors to awaken thought, to form character. He does not drift with the current, but he grasps the oar and plies it vigorously; he is not a loafer by the wayside, but an actor upon the stage of human endeavor. The true teacher is a patriot, though he may never march to the sound of martial strains or ride in the fierce whirl-wind of battle. He is a potent factor in our national life, preparing as he does the soil upon which the seeds of character are sown, watching as he does the blosoming of the white flowers of truth, which form the corner-stone of this republic.
But we started out to tell what we saw in a country school. The time was last week; the place Chickasaw county. Twenty-five pupils were enrolled, twenty-two being present. The order was excellent and the interest and application were good, because the school is taught by a live teacher.
1st. The following is a practically correct report of a language recitation by a class of eight third reader pupils:
1. Write the initials of Iowa, United States, New York, Charles Henry Brown, and your own name.
This question was readily and correctly answered.
2. Write the name of a village, a city, a state, and a country.
Answers, Fredericksburg is a village.
Dubuque is a city.
Iowa is a state.
The United States of America is a country.
3. Name an object that is round, one that is heavy, one made of wood, one that can talk, one that can swim, one that can sing.
Answers. A marble is round.
Iron is heavy.
The table is made of wood.
A chair is made of wood.
A boy can talk.
A girl can sing.
A fish can swim.
4. Diagram: Owls hoot, Doves coo, Plants grow, Men think, Dressmakers sew.
(The class had previously had drills upon the manner of diagramming short sentences similar to the above.)
5. Write a story with the following words in it: Mary, doll, wax, carriage, visiting, another, isn't, cry, beautiful, dress.The time being limited the last question was left for the next day's recitation. All the questions were neatly written on the blackboard and the pupils brought their answers to the recitation on slates. Attention and interest were excellent throughout.
The A grammar class had conjugation for their lesson, and the members were well prepared. At the close of the regular lesson we gave the following sentences and requested the pupils to name the tense of each verb. This they were able to do.
1. I went to Nashua. 2. I shall go to Chickasaw. 3. John has gone to Bassett. 4. He had gone to Lawler before I reached the house. 5. The mail has come. 6. He recites well.
The number class using the second reader had the following examples for the day's work. This lesson was written on the blackboard:
8 and 5 equal what?
3 sevenths of 21 equals?
4 times 4 plus ? equals 24.
19 divided by 2 equals what number?
3 eights of 16 equal?
7 plus 6 plus 3 divided by 4 equals?
Two-thirds of 24 equals?
Add 6 5 4 2 9 6 7 9 8 8 5 5 3 0 8 4 4 9 3 6 3 9 8 7 8 6 3 _ _ _ _
Write 4 hundreds 6 tens 3 units
Write 7 hundreds 0 tens 9 units
Write 1 hundreds 5 tens 2 unitsThe teacher has prepared some very attractive literature cards by cutting portraits of eminent authors out of periodicals and pasting them upon red card-board, together with titles of a number of the author's most celebrated works. In the advanced reading class, these cards may be made good use of. Following is a list of the cards we examined:
John G. Whittier.
O.W. Holmes.
Nathaniel Hawthorne.
J.T Fields.
Walter Scott.
W.D. Howells.
James R. Lowell.
E.C. Stedman.
Alfred Tennyson.
C.D. Warner.
R.W. Emerson.
Charles Dickens.
Hans C. Anderson.
Ben Franklin.
H.W. Longfellow.
H.E. Scudder.
H.B. Stowe.
Mrs. A.D.T Whitney.Supplementry reading matter has been prepared by cutting out easy selections from educational journals and mounting them upon card-board. In the reading lessons much care is exercised to have pupils understand the meaning and be able to use all new words in sentences; the expression is also brought out. In short, reading is so taught as to make thinkers rather than parrots.
Of course we saw only a part of the day's work, but we found a faithful, efficient, inventive teacher, whose work fairly bristled with good points and who has succeeded in imparting a portion of her own zeal to the pupils. The influence of such a teacher is far reaching.
CHICKASAW COUNTY TEACHER,
NEW HAMPTON, IOWA, AUGUST, 1889.
PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT
NEW HAMPTON, CHICKASAW COUNTY, IA.,
By O.A. McFARLAND and J. JONES, Jr.
Entered at Postoffice at New Hampton, Ia., as Second-class Matter.
Subscription 50 Cents per Year.
The Normal Institute.
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The Normal Institute of 1889 is one of the largest in numbers and one of the most interesting and profitable sessions ever held in Chickasaw county. The teachers have shown a remarkable interest in the work. The work has not ended with the recitations, but teachers have gone to their boarding places in the evening and worked dilligently to prepare the lessons for the following day. The first day 103 were enrolled, and by the close of the first week the enrollment had reached 124. On Monday of the second week the number was increased to 141. At this writing 145 have enrolled. In accordance with the course of study prepared by the county superintendent in January, 1887, the institute has been divided into four divisions, viz: the Normal, A, B and C divisions. The plan of grading and working according to the course of study has proved to be decidedly superior to the ungraded method in use prior to the year 1887.
The Normal division has taken algebra, natural philosophy, history and civil government, general history, history of pedagogy and physical geography.
A class of 12 completed the course of study and were granted institute diplomas in 1888.
The teachers of this county are, as a class, thoroughly in earnest and are desirous of availing themselves of every opportunity to improve.
O.A. McFarland
Faulty Home Teaching.
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Very many of the American people seem to think, nowadays, that a knowledge of books and the ability to play a little on the organ or piano constitute a young lady's education. The idea of teaching girls to sew, make bread, iron, and do general house work seems to be passing away in many cases. How does this kind of home teaching conform to the early views entertained by those who laid the foundation of this government? In the days of long ago mothers taught their daughters the duties of the home, and honest work was not considered a disgrace. Now it is the exception rather than the rule to find a young lady who is thoroughly versed in house keeping.
We have little sympathy with false views concerning this all-important subject of education. All honest labor is ennobling, and that kind of home education on training, which looks only to drumming on an organ, or doing a little in the line of fancy work, painting, etc., to the neglect of cooking, ironing, and bread making is certainly faulty.
Girls, it is well to bear in mind that you cannot always sit with folded hands while mother does the cooking; sooner or later such responsibilities may come to you. "Learn to do by doing" is an old educational maxim and it is applicable in the home as well as in the school.
The parents who rear sons and daughters in idleness, who have never taught them to labor with hand as well as with brain, are sewing seeds which sooner or later will bear fruit, and when the fruit has ripened the helpless ones must suffer.
"Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer;
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on, till wisdom is pushed out of life."O.A. McFarland
The list on the right [below] are some of my old teachers when I was County Superintendent in Chickasaw Co, Iowa. O.A. McFarland.
Normal Institute for 1889.
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NORMAL DIVISION.
Zora Sherman,
Flora Caston,
Eva M. Dayton,
Estella Ferguson,
A.L. Ames,
De Etta Stevens,
Grae Troutmer,
Emma Porter,
W.J. Nugent,
James W. Bradford,
Alene Chestek,
Mertie Pope,
S.R. Ure,
L.M. Lynch.A. DIVISION.
Nellie Hanlon,
May Wing,
Delia Conley,
Addie Brookins,
Mary Schultz,
Mary Cooney,
Adell Smedley,
Belle Kidder,
Mary M. Appleberry,
Ida Fitzsimmons,
Katie Murphy,
Gertie Wachtel,
June Hagerty,
May E. Waterbury,
Etta Burns,
Ora Green,
Ida M. Robison,
Anna M. Hoehne,
Kate Schultz,
Maggie O'Day,
Mary Barrett,
Dora Van De Bogart,
Anna Murphy,
Lottie Schank,
Emma Brown,
Kittie Linden,
Lena Wachtel,
Sadie Conklin,
Mary Linden,
Kit Contant,
E.F. McElwell,
Gertie Rogers,
Maggie Condon,
Kate Murray,
Maggie Kearney,
Cynthis Hurley,
Anna Johnson,
Stella Cole,
Anna Montague,
Hattie McCaughey,
Sara Coutant,
Mary Condon,
May L. Russell,
Lizzie Clarken,B. DIVISION.
Jesse Dunlap,
Nellie M. Ward,
Emma Paarman,
Nellie Snyder,
Tillie Kempendorf,
Jennie Olds,
Howard Mitchell,
Edith Smedley,
Mary Elliott,
Amy Burch,
Katie Rochford,
Teresa Gallegan,
Lizzie Burns,
Ruth Stone,
Jennie Hinkley,
May Hagerty,
Gertie Babcock,
C.S. Cory,
Libbie Brace,
Geo. Wright,
Anna Folan,
Mary Wachholz,
Susie Clark,
Hattie Kenyon,
Hattie Baldwin,
Mary Carroll,
Amy Wood,
Lucia Ames,
Ellen McGruder,
Agnes Murphy,
Fred Birdsall,
Mary Evans,
Leta Quaife,
Laura Evans,
Jessie L. Weeks,
Matie Churchill,
Cassie Dougherty,
Anna Dougherty,
Mattie McCaughey,
Johannah Robinson,C. DIVISION.
Maggie Coates,
Irene Judge,
Frances Jewett,
Minnie Miller,
Anna Stanton,
Lucy O'Day,
Hattie Sunderlin,
Mary Cavanaugh,
Carrie Dana,
Etta Boice,
Sadie L. Clapper,
Minerva Dayton,
Flora White,
Nellie F. Molloy,
Josie Harned,
Eva Adams,
Blanche Perry,
Mary Schoonover,
Anna Faite,
Lizzie Orman,
Ada Ditmars,
Anna Tooley,
Esther Appleberry,
Rosie Mullin,
Mattie Folan,
Rosie Galligan,
Ida Wilkins,
Mary McGinn,
Rosa McKenna,
Mary Mullin,
Effie Roberts,
Rose Demuth,
Nellie Badger,
Chas. A. Daily,
Mary Reilly,
Fleddie Minkler,
Bertha Gray,
Anna Sweeney,
Minnie Doyle,
Belle Palmer,
Anna McFaul,
Jennie McBride,
Maria Branagan,
Gertrude Goddard,
Stella Pope,
Luella Lawson,
Georgianna Richardson.
How heart-rending was the story of the Siberian exile system as told by George Kennan in his series of articles in the Century magazine about the years 1888-1899-90! It made one's heart-ache to read the Kennan articles.
The horrors of the famine in India which occurred about 1897 or '98 was told in the Cosmopolitan by Julian Hawthorne. These articles were awful in their details of the sufferings of the poor starving natives.
I could scarcely read them, so powerfully did they affect me.
Mr. Hawthorne estimated that (16,000,000) sixteen millions died of starvation during that time.
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An Autobiography of O.A. McFarland
Part XI
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Bethany McFarland
E-mail: bethany@citilink.comCopyright 1997, 1998 by Bethany Rose McFarland
