=Attitude toward teaching materials.=--When the boy carries a toad to
school, she does not shudder, but rather rejoices, because she sees in
him a possible Agassiz. When he displays an interest in plant life, she
sees in him another Burbank. When she finds him drawing pictures at his
desk, she smiles approval, for she sees in him another Raphael. She does
not disdain the lowliest insect, reptile, or plant when she finds it
within the circle of the child's interests. She is willing, nay eager,
to ransack the universe if only she may come upon elements of nutrition
for her pupils. From every flower that blooms she gathers honey that she
may distill it into the life of the child. She does not coddle the
child; she gives him nourishment.
=History.=--Her history is as wide as human thought and as high as human
aspiration. It includes the Rosetta stone and the morning paper. It
travels back from the clothing of the child to the cotton gin. The
stitch in the little girl's dress is the index finger that points to the
page that depicts the invention of the sewing machine. Every engine
leads her back to Watt, and she takes the children with her. Every
foreign message in the daily paper revives the story of Field and the
laying of the Atlantic cable. Every mention of the President's cabinet
gives occasion for reviewing the cabinets of other Presidents with
comparisons and contrasts.
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