PRACTICAL SELECTIONS FROM TWENTY YEARS OF NORMAL INSTRUCTOR AND PRIMARY PLANS A VALUABLE BOOK OF READY REFERENCE FOR THE TEACHER CONTAINING ARTICLES OF INSPIRATION AND INSTRUCTION; HINTS, SUGGESTIONS, METHODS, ILLUSTRATIONS; WITH PLANS AND MATERIAL FOR ENTERTAINMENTS AND MANY SELECTIONS FOR RECITATIONS. EDITED AND COMPILED BY Formerly Teacher in Massachusetts Public Schools, Editor "Suburban Life;" Author of "Popular Recitations and How to Recite Them" and "Maids and Matrons," a Colonial Play. DANSVILLE, NEW YORK F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY 53 ous Blackboard Sketches...... 54 Blackboard Calendar............ A Page of Illustrations of Es- 137 147 153 165 98 189 The Compiler's Preface Did you ever complete a task that throughout all its accomplishing had been a great joy to you, and then wonder whether those for whom the work was designed would respond to your spirit of pleasure? If you have, you will appreciate my condition of mind at the time of this writing, when the volume is ready to go out to its thousands of readers. It will interest you to learn just why it was that "Practical Selections" was published; how it happened that such a rather unique volume came to be made. Let me tell you. "Normal Instructor," one of the best known and the most widely circulated of educational magazines, commenced publication in November, 1891. In the fall of 1912, therefore, it will come to the twenty-first milestone of its life. You will agree that such an event was not to be passed over lightly, being of real importance in the educational field and in publishing circles; and a matter of personal pride to the large family of "Normal Instructor" readers, and to its founders and makers. Several plans for a suitable celebration were broached and discussed, but the idea of putting into a substantial and permanent form some of the best contributions that had appeared in the magazine during the twenty years of its existence appealed most strongly to those directly interested. A reason for this was the fact that hundreds of requests for magazines containing some popular article are received yearly, and these demands frequently can not be met because the issues have been exhausted. Such a book would perpetuate many of the good things that have been so eagerly sought in the years past. It was decided that the companion magazine, “Primary Plans," which, it may surprise you to learn, has attained already half the age of the older magazine, should not be slighted; that it should be drawn upon for its share of contributions, for the two magazines are one in spirit and aim. Perhaps it may have been my long continued interest in "Normal Instructor," my connection with it as reader for many years and, later, as regular contributor to its columns, that determined the "powers that be" to entrust me with the building of the work that should stand as a memorial to the coming-of-age of the magazine. The task was taken up with mingled feelings of pride, fear and pleasure. Pride in the wealth of material that was mine to command, fear that justice could not be done to it, and pleasure that was certain to be found in the fascinations of reading, selecting and the final choosing. One central thought must be necessarily of compelling influence. It early was decided that, first of all, the work should be imbued with that practical value for which, above all else, the two magazines have ever stood; still not to make the book a mere symposium of devices, aids or methods, for helpful as may be many of the ideas that come under these heads, it would not truly represent the publications, with their broad outlook, high ideals, and their intellectual atmosphere. Please consider the difficulty that confronted me when I beheld the "embarrassment of riches." A single issue of each magazine, as you know, is filled to the brim with material helpful, suggestive, progressive,-usable every bit of it. Consider that twenty years of "Normal Instructor'' and ten years of "Primary Plans" means Three Hundred Magazines, holding, as you can see, storehouses just "pressed down and running over" with an abundance of the best products of the educator's harvest. If the task had been that of filling a volume as large as the dictionary, how infinitely simple it would have seemed as compared to the one in hand. What is the real purpose of "Practical Selections ?" It is not designed as a technical guide in any sense, but rather in the nature of a supplementary aid to the teacher, who often turns to a favorite group of books in which to find inspiration and practical assistance from the abundance and variety of ideas presented. Oftentimes, an article or even a few words of text on a certain point or subject will lead the mind to round out for itself a conclusion that most aptly fulfils the purpose of the original search. For this reason, many short, suggestive paragraphs taken bodily from a long treatise are tucked into this book. The beauties of the unfolding of Nature have been present ever during the preparation of this work, and it is my hope that the delight experienced in the loveliness of the scenes that have spread themselves before my eyes may have infused these pages with a charm that will gain a loving welcome for the work. Now that the last word has been written, for, as perhaps you know, in book-making it almost always happens that the "last must be first, I am going to put on my seven-league boots and see what lies on the other side of that green, tree-dotted hill, up whose slope my eyes have so often traveled during these last weeks from the windows of the beautiful and spacious building, which has housed "Normal Instructor' and "Primary Plans" for several years, to the forest-crowned top where the blue sky comes down to meet the line of pines. A charming western view from one of the prettiest villages of this picturesque portion of our country. It will linger long in my memory. Dansville, N. Y., June 1, 1912. GRACE B. FAXON. |