(Front Cover)

BULLETIN
First District Normal School
Kirksville, Missouri

VOL. XIV. SEPTEMBER, 1914 No. 2

Publisht by the First District Normal School. Issued Quarterly, June, September, December, March

Enterd June 25, 1902, at Kirksville, Mo., as second-class matter under Act of Congress, of July, 1894

SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES For the Study of the State Reading Circle Books for 1914-1915

Statement of the Credits Offerd by the First District Normal School

REGULATIONS.


Desiring to aid teachers in service and to encourage the reading circle work, this school will give 
the following credits:
For doing the complete work (both books) two terms or five hours of credit will be given in any two 
of the following courses in Education: Principles of Teaching, School Economy, Rural School 
Management, School Curriculum, or Rural Life Problems, provided the individual has not already 
received credit on our books in these subjects. These credits count towards any certificate or 
diploma issued by this school. See June, 1914, Bulletin of this school, page 20 and following. For 
studying only one book one half of above named credit will be given.

It is hoped that all teachers in actual service, and all who wish to make professional advancement, 
will take advantage of this opportunity.

The following are the conditions:
1. This school will furnish suggestive outlines and questions to county superintendents for 
distribution to the various circles.
2. Each circle is to have some good teacher as leader. The leader is to be selected by the county 
superintendent. It is suggested that each circle number not less than five members, including the 
leader.
Note. Mature, experienced teachers may, on the approval of the county superintendent, do this work 
alone if it is especially inconvenient to join a circle.
3. The names of leaders are to be sent to this school for approval. The committee desires to commend 
the practice of the county superintendent leading the circles. Each leader will be expected to make 
reports, on blanks sent out from this school, concerning the attendance and the amount of work done 
by each member. On the request of any leader, points of difficulty will be explained by the proper 
instructor in this school.

(Page 2)

4. Faculty members cannot meet generally with the circles, but where all the circles or a group of 
circles in a county can meet together a member of this faculty will be present when desired.
5. At least ten meetings, approximately two hours in length, including the final examination, are 
to be held by each circle during the year.
6. A final examination is to be conducted by the county superintendent at the time of the regular 
March examination or at a date not later than May 1, 1915. This school will furnish the final 
examination questions and grade all papers.

Address all reading circle communications to some member of the undersigned committee, but 
preferably to the Secretary.

Signed:
W. A. CLARK, Chairman,
L. B. SIPPLE,
MARK BURROWS, Secretary.

STUDY QUESTIONS ON CHARTERS' "THE TEACHING OF THE COMMON BRANCHES."

First Lesson.

1. Describe the author's plan for his book.
2. What is spelling as a school study?
3. Explain the statement beginning in the 11th line from the bottom of page 2.
4. What is "simplified spelling"?
5. Explain the statement beginning in the 11th line on page 7.
6. What is a "spelling black list;" and what do you think of the education value of such a list?
7. Give a summary of the author's discussion of interest in spelling.
8. Discuss the conclusion reacht in the summary on page 16.
9. Why should spelling be studied chiefly in written composition"?
10. Answer the 13th question on page 26.
11. What is "good writing"?
12. What is the proper use of the copy-book in teaching penmanship?
13. Discuss the three factors in the study of penmanship given	on pages 39-41.
14. What do you think of the practical value of the "Thorndike Standards"?

Second Lesson.

15. What school studies are included under the term "language"?
16. Why is a "language lessons" textbook a difficult one to make?
17. Discuss "letter writing" as a form of language study.
18. Distinguish "immediate interests" from "mediate interests" as incentives to good language work.
19. Explain the statement in the summary on page 62.
20. What is meant by "freedom" in writing on page 62?
21. Discuss the correcting of errors as given on page 62.
22. What is a "dictionary" in its matter and use?
23. What is the function of the study of grammar?
24. Explain the terms "parsing," "analysis," and "diagramming."
25. Discuss the statement in the summary on page 84.
26. What relation does the study of grammar bear to the study of composition?

2

(Page 3)

27. What is the pedagogical defect of the "inductive method" in teaching grammar?
28. How does the "developing method" differ from the "inductive method"?
29. Answer the 16th question on page 103.

Third Lesson.

30. Discuss the summary on page 105.
31. What is "good reading"?
32. Show the correctness of the author's view on pages 113 and 114.
33. What relation does "silent reading" bear to "oral reading"?
34. What is elocution?
35. Give a summary of the discussion of the "recapitulation theory" given on pages 115 and 117.
36. How does the teaching of "primary reading" differ from the teaching of more advanced reading?
37. Describe briefly each of the four methods of teaching reading given on pages 118 to 122.
38. What is "supplementary reading"?
39. How does the motive in oral reading differ from the motive in silent reading?
40. Why does the teaching of reading in the public schools produce such unsatisfactory results?
41. What is literature?
42. Show that the study of literature is a study of reading.
43. What is the value of memorizing portions of literature?

Fourth Lesson.

44. Compare drawing with composition.
45. Discuss the	summary	on page 150.
46. What is the	standard of excellence in a picture made by a child?
47. Discuss the summary	on page 155.
48. Which one of the six principles given on page 156 do you think most important? Why?
49. What is "appreciation of pictures"; and how can children be taught to appreciate pictures?
50. Give a brief combined answer to questions 4, 5, and 6 on page 165.
51. Compare vocal music wTith oral reading.
52. Justify the teaching of music to all children.
53. Discuss the author's view of musical composition given on pages 177
to 182.

Fifth Lesson.

54. What are the "handicrafts" as education material?
55. Discuss the three education values of the handicrafts given on page 187, as exemplified in 
sewing; and show which is the chief value.
56. Distinguish the disciplinary from the cultural value of carpentry as a handicraft, page 188.
57. Show the pedagogical correctness of the fundamental idea in the paragraphs at the bottom of 
page 189 and top of page 190.
58. Explain some of the ways in which the "regular teacher" can teach handicrafts.
59. What can the children in a country school be taught to provide for the better material 
equipment of the school?
60. Explain the last statement in the summary on page 194.
61. Discuss the paragraphs beginning in the 9th line on page 195 and the 9th line on page 197.

3

(Page 4)

62. How can "school luncheons" be made of practical education value in the country schools of 
Missouri?
63. Show that "busy work" as such cannot be justified pedagogically.
64. Discuss critically in contrast the two theories of materials for primary handwork given on 
pages 203 to 209.
65. Why should girls learn to use a hammer and a saw; and why should boys learn to cook and sew?

Sixth Lesson.

66. Discuss the definition of geography given on page 216, as to both what
it includes and what it excludes of earth materials and forms.
67. How does explanatory, "why geography" (wrongly called "physical geography") differ in its 
matter and method from descriptive, "where geography"?
68. What is meant by "physiography"?
69. Show that atmospheric currents are as truly geographic material as mountain ranges are.
70. What is meant by "commercial geography"?
71. Show, on the basis of the definition given in the first paragraph on page 216, when a cape 
is true geographic material.
72. What is "home geography"; and how is it related to the more general "world geography," in 
both matter and method?
73. Explain how the original sources of the materials of a simple family dinner can be made a 
valuable geographic study.
74. Is geography "the great culture subject of the elementary school curriculum"--more so than 
history, or arithmetic, or nature study.
75. Explain the use of the imagination in getting real concrete knowledge of places which the 
pupil has never seen.
76. What are "maps," in design and form?
77. Discuss briefly the values of the devices in teaching geography described on pages 237 to 239.
78. What do you understand by the expression "the geography of corn" (first question on page 240) 
on the basis of the definition in the first paragraph of the chapter?
79. What is history; and what is its education value?
80. Is there any more incentive to "study history for its own sake" than the study of any other 
subject so as chemistry for example?
81. How does the study of history develop patriotism?
82. What is the relation of the biographies of great men to history?
83. Discuss the author's criticism on pages 245 and 246 of the Report of the Committee of Seven.
84. Compare descriptive, or "factual history," and explanatory, or "rational history," with similar 
phases of geography as noted in the 67th question of this list.
85. What do you think of the author's idea in the paragraph beginning in the lower part of page 250?
86. Explain the "problem" method of teaching history presented on pages 252 to 258.
87. What is the relation of "current events" to history?
88. What is the education value of "history notebooks"?
89. Answer the 7th question on page 265.
90. What is civics as a school study?
91. Does your own personal experience justify the statement beginning in the last line on page 267?
92. How can civics be taught concretely from the organization of the local community outward to the 
State and the Nation?

4

(Page 5)

Seventh Lesson.

93. What is the function of arithmetic in the common affairs of life; and does that function alone 
determine its education value?
94. Explain the statement in the summary on page 277.
95. When should the study of arithmetic as a separate study be begun in the country schools?
96. What are "practical problems"?
97. Explain, using a concrete problem as an example, the author's fiive steps in solving a problem.
98. Is the summary on page 292 satisfactory?
99. Answer question 8 on page 299, with special reference to country schools
100. Answer question 10 on page 299.
101. What is "mental arithmetic"?

Eighth Lesson.

102. Criticise the author's discussion of "physiology and hygiene" as a common school study.
103. Why is it so difficult to write practically on the teaching of physiology?
104. How is the study of the science of "agriculture" related to the study of the art of "farming"?
105. Answer questions 1 and 2 on page 320.
106. Answer question 3 on page 320.
107. Explain how in the teaching of farming in a country school practical use can be made of the 
actual experiences of the pupils.

Ninth Lesson.

108. Discuss the summary on page 324.
109. Answer question 6 on page 327.
110. What do you understand by "being interested in a subject"?
111. What is "mediate interest;" and what is its use in teaching?
112. Answer question 4 on page 334.
113. What is a "recitation"?
114. What is a "question," an "answer"; a "problem," a "solution"?
115. What is the meaning of "studying a lesson"?
116. Discuss the "assigning of a lesson."
117. What is a "textbook"?
118. What books in the list on pages 346 and 347 have you seen; what ones have you read; and what 
ones do you have in your own library?

DAVENPORT'S "EDUCATION FOR EFFICIENCY."

Lesson I.

Introduction--The Rise of Industrial Education.
1. In your opinion, to what extent is Turner's indictment of education in 1857 true at the present time?
2. After the Land Grant Act what difficulties were found in introducing industrial education?
3. Into what extremes may the advocates of industrial education go? The advocates of the opposing view?

Education for Efficiency.
1. What is the first general principle to be noted? The most significant fact? The fundamental question?

5

(Page 6)

2. How does the author characterize the experiment of universal education? What does he insist are the 
four fundamentals to be recognized?
3. What are some of the academic traditions which he considers the greatest hindrance to the natural 
evolution of the schools?
4. Illustrate the statement "We must introduce vocational studies freely, not for their  pedagogic 
influence, but for their own sake and for the professional skill and creative energy they will give 
the learner."
5. What does he conceive to be the true function of the modern high school?

Lesson II.

Industrial Education with Special Reference to the High School.
1. Define industrial education. What are some types of non-industrial education?
2. What is the origin of the demand for industrial education?
3. What are the advantages of teaching the industrial and non-industrial education side by side?
4. What phases of agriculture should be taught in the country high school? Of the shop? Of the 
household?
5. Explain America's "two stupendous advantages." How may they be preserved?

Lesson III.

Industrial Education a Phase of the Problems of Universal Education.
1. Justify the author's characterization of the Land Grant Act as "the most far reaching bit of 
federal legislation ever enacted."
2. Enumerate the three influences that interfere with the proper evolution of the high school.
3. What may be the list of achievements for the high schools if their plans are made more like 
those of the modern university?
4. Who are included in our two leisure classes? Make a list of those who have no leisure? What 
is their compensation?
5. Give the advantage for the parallel system in courses of study over the stratified system.

Lesson IV.

The Educative Value of Labor.
1. Explain what the author means by charging that "we have become school mad."
2. Compare the training of the boy on the farm with that of the average boy of the city.
3. What part of school work should be given to the vocational? How are the objections met as to 
the using of so much time?
4. What is the real problem of education?
5. What is the author's attitude toward giving credit in school courses for outside activities?

Lesson V.

The Culture Aim in Education.
1. Explain: Any attempt to secure industrial efficiency by the sacrifice of culture subjects will 
defeat its own ends.
2. Illustrate: There is nothing about labor or even about common things that makes impossible the 
loftiest intellectual achievments.
3. Why does the author state that the highest form of culture presupposes expression?

6

(Page 7)

4. Why is so much of the world's work done so poorly?
5. What is your idea of culture? Compare the following statements:

Plato's Ideal of a Cultured Man.

A lover, not of a part of wisdom, but of the whole who has a taste for every sort of knowledge and 
is curious to learn, and is never satisfied; who has magnificence of mind, and is a spectator of 
all time and all existance; who is harmoniously constituted; of a well proportioned and gracious 
mind, whose own nature will move spontaneously toward the true being of everything; who has a good 
memory, and is quick to learn, noble, gracious, the friend of truth, justice, courage, temperance.

De Quincy's Great Scholar.

Not one who depends on an infinite memory, but on an infinite and electrical power of combination; 
bringing together from the four winds, like the angel of the resurrection, what else were dust from 
dead men's bones, into the unity of breathing life.

Huxley's Man with a Liberal Education.

That man, I think, has a liberal education, who has been so trained in his youth that his body is 
the ready servant of his wlil, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, 
it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold logic engine with all its parts of equal strength, 
and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin 
the gossamers as well as forge anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with the great and 
fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full 
of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of 
a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all 
vileness, and to respect others as himself.

6. Summarize the objections to separate industrial schools.
7. What do you consider the best reason for unity in education?

Lesson VI.

Agricultural Education.

1. Restate the main points of Chapter 2. Explain the general term "industrial education" (see 
Chap. 2 and preface). State the importance of agriculture as related to industrial education (Chap. 7).
2. Give all the reasons for teaching agriculture in the high school rather than in the grades. Give 
objections.
3. What is the object in teaching agriculture? Which is the more important, agricultural knowledge or 
agricultural skill? Which (knowledge or skill) is mostly taught in our high schools today, located as 
they are in towns? Make an argument here for a school farm and also for rural high schools.
4. Criticise by years the course of study on pp. 128-136. Compare this course with some high school 
course that you know. What changes would you make in this course in the text to adapt it to your 
community. Would you favor such a course in Missouri even if it crowded out some other subjects (p. 137)?
5. Discuss the order of topics in the outline on p. 128. Compare with those offered in some normal 
school catalogue. What proportion of time should a normal school give to acquiring knowledge as compared 
with skill in agriculture (p. 146)? Discuss "applied science" p. 148 together with lines 3 to 10 on 
p. 126. Give clear distinctions.

7

(Back Cover)

Lesson VII.

Agriculture in Elementary Schools.

1. State the objects of education (p. 139). Show that "universal education" as used up to recent 
years was a misonmer. Can we have universal education and omit from the course agriculture and other 
vocational subjects? (See p. 169 and review Chapters 3 and 4).
2. Show how the curriculum up to the present has trained pupils away from the farm and the shop 
(p. 140). See Chapter 4.
3. Give several reasons for teaching agriculture in the grades (pp. 138, 139, 144). Distinguish 
between nature study and agriculture (pp. 141, 142). Discuss the right of the following to train 
farm boys and girls: a high school without a school farm, a rural school without a school garden, 
an elementary school course without agriculture, a teacher without agriultural training.
4. Give an outline of the work in agriculture in the Missouri State Course of Study. Compare with 
author's plan in Chapters 7 and 8. Should the girls take the same work in the grades in agriculture 
as the boys? Should the boys take the same work in the grades in home economics as the girls?
5. Would you favor teaching agriculture in the grades in a strong consolidated rural school having 
both grades and high school in the same building? Give reasons.

Lesson VIII.

Agriculture as a Business.

1. State the author's points that distinguish agriculture as an occupation from other occupations.
2. Discuss the development of agriculture under the six heads as used by the author.
3. Discuss that part of the chapter beginning with the last paragraph on page 172.
4. Do you agree with the last paragraph on page 173? Why?
5. What about elementary schools and high schools giving only the classical courses to a majority 
of students who must or should live on the farm?

Lesson IX.

Development of American Agriculture.

1. Discuss the development and the importance of agriculture as found on pages 149 to 152 and 
176 to 183.
2. Find a good definition of "balance of trade." Explain the quotation from Sir Henry Gilbert on 
page 185. From a good geography text, make a list of agricultural products in which the U. S. holds 
the balance of trade. Do the same for Missouri.
3. Study the note on page 177. Then study the conditions under which the "drift to town" is normal 
(p. 186). Then find the gain or loss in rural poulation, city poulation. tenants on farms, and 
number of farms for your county; for North East Missouri; for Missouri. (Your congressman can supply 
you with the 1910 Census figures for Mo.) Decide whether the conditions as shown by the figures are 
normal or not.
4. Why have a Rural Credit System? What effect has this upon land tenure? How far can the principles 
on pages 192 and 193 be put into practice? Apply each principle to your own observations.
5. Give a summary of what you understand "education for efficiency" to comprise.

8