" THE Q UINCY METHOD " 1 1 9
The spelling-book was laid upon the shelf. Spelling was learned by the Quincy children in the same way that the human race learns to talk by writing correctly and continually. Language was learned as it always must be learned by using it correctly. Technical rules came in where needed. The alphabetic method was consigned to oblivion in obedience to commands from the highest educational authorities. The outcry against this defiance of nature had gone up for hundreds of years.
Learning by heart condensed and desiccated statements in geogra- phy and history was to some extent eliminated. Geography began with the real earth, and "mud pies" were introduced. I remember an old beehive stand just back of the Coddington School. The stand furnished tolerably good legs and framework. The top had been taken off and a molding table put thereon. With sand and images of continents we imitated the bees.
The committee said, "Three R's only," and I echoed it, with the mental reservation that some day, please God, the children should have better nutrition than formal teaching. They should have the great book of the Creator, and learn from it that " day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." A naturalist took the principalship of the Willard School. He brought specimens of stuffed birds. One day Charles Francis Adams and G. Stanley Hall were visiting the school. On request, the principal brought in a stuffed duck which the pupils had never seen. I asked the children (it was the third grade) to write about the duck. They went at it with a will, and their slates were soon filled with good writing, correct spelling, and withal excellent thought. The visitors watched the work with interest. Mr. Adams turned to me and said : " You are teaching natural history." "No," I replied, "this is language." So it was, with a bit of thought behind it.
The criticism was made on all sides: "The children are amused and happy ; they love to go to school ; but do they learn ? Can they spell ?" And so on. Many of you may recall the Norfolk county examination. George A. Walton (no better man could be found), under the direction of the Norfolk school committee, examined the schools of the county, town by town. The examination was in the so-called essentials, the three R's, geography, and history. John Quincy Adams gave $500 to have specimens of penmanship, number work, and composition lithographed. The results were published in a pamphlet. Figures gave the per cents., town by town. The towns were lettered A, B, C, etc., so that no one knew the particular town so lettered. The pamphlet created a sensation. Many declared that the examination was not fair. They were astonished at the results. Later on an edition of the report came out, with the names of the towns given in full. Quincy had by far the highest per cent, and led in everything except mental arithmetic, and in that it stood third or fourth. This is the first time, so far as I know, that the foregoing statement has ever been made in public.
