HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY Elect Educ P 184 184.6 MAGAZINE SCHOOL WORK SEPTEMBER, 1912 VOL. V No. 1 3 #3 #3 #3#3#3#333333 A monthly magazine for the progressive teacher, principal and superintendent, presenting the latest and best thought in educational theory and practice in American schools. OUTLINES OF ENGLISH CLASSICS. By ELMER J. BAILEY. These outlines cover the 8th grade Elementary English and the four years of work in High School English following the New York State secondary syllabus. Price 15 cents each. Special discount of 40 per cent on orders for ten or more copies. Send for circular. THE AMERICAN EXAMINATION AND REVIEW BOOK. The most complete and most helpful examination book ever published. Second edition, just out. Price $1.25. Send for descriptive circular. EXAMINATION BOOK IN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVICS. This volume will be found of great help to teachers for review purposes and to pupils who are preparing for examinations. Price 60 cents postpaid. GOOD POSITIONS FOR GOOD TEACHERS NEW YORK STATE TEACHERS' BUREAU, GOOD TEACHERS FOR GOOD POSITIONS Write to Molly W. Anderson, Manager, 50 State St., Albany, N. Y. NEW YORK EDUCATION CO. ALBANY, N. Y. McEvoY MAGAZINE THOMAS J. McEVOY, Editor and Publisher A Quarterly Journal of Education for Home and School. Published September, December, March and June Yearly Subscription, $1.00 in Advance; Single Copy by Mail, 35 Cents; in Office, 30 Cents. Publication Office: 6 Third Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. Post Office Address: Box 73, Station L, Brooklyn, N.Y. Telephone, Main 5342. Vol. V. SEPTEMBER, 1912 Home Study and the Study Period. By PRINCIPAL JESSIE B. COLBURN Educational authorities agree that two of the most pressing problems of the elementary school of today are the question of retardation and that of teaching children to study. The retardation question is a large one, one of many factors; but one of these factors is, indubitably, the child's lack of power for independent study. The boy who not only knows what he wants but knows how to get it from the printed page, has in his hands a weapon which can make of him, if he choose, a real student; one who is largely independent of a teacher; and this, of course, is the aim of all teaching. If in the elementary school we can realize this aim to any considerable extent, we certainly shall have fewer retarded children, for joy comes with power, and the child who knows how to study effectively will, in many cases, lose his indifference or laziness, or what has seemed such, and develop into a good or at least a fair student who will not become a "repeater". How many teachers are there, I wonder, who have not said with a hopeless, helpless No. I. sort of feeling, when faced with an utterly absurd answer either in class or on a test paper, "I wish I could get inside of that child's mind and see what his ideas are”? But how many of us realize that probably the child has just as helpless a feeling when at home he sits down to study his lessons, a process which seems to mean to him little except forced verbal memorizing resulting too often in a mere blank or in a hodge-podge of absurditiy that strikes terror to our souls. To my mind, there is but one way out of the difficulty. We must carefully teach the child how to study, we must give him right habits. of study; he must acquire the power to get what he needs from his book-ideas, not words. And this, like everything involving real growth, is a slow process; and the busy teacher trying not only to cover the crowded curriculum of the modern school, but to cover it on a time limit, says she cannot afford to work so slowly, not realizing that it will be fundamentally sound economy and, if well done, will yield an hundredfold. Besides, it is no longer a question of whether we can |