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About Christian herald. (Portland ;) 1882-18?? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 1883)
8 » 5 < A.---- 1 dtimSTIAN HERALD —— — - -- ance literature was accessible to Temperance Department. the scholars. A quiet note of sug gestion signed Fy~lh^Tea^er~^f Temperance in the Schools. physiology, crime’ to the ladies of BY ALICB M. GUMNSKY. the W. C. T. U. one day. 11 Why have we not thought of it before ?” * Yes, I believe in temperance just as fully as you do. 1 know it they said. Ina short time, “ Alco ought to be taught to the children hol and Hygiene ” and other re- jUut here fitti I tn a "graded school-“ ’ feiwce boe^ks on the subject. ivere yoti khovfr What that means; so on the library shelves. As the many pages of arithmetic, geogra physiology class studied the hqart, phy, language, music, etc, to be the stomach and other organs, a . ttriaWed by the pupils in a year. standing question was added to the ~ Every minute is filled to its utmost topics oT the "iexl-Iiook “ What is the effect of alcohol capacity. I would gladly add tem perance teaching if I could, but it upon these organs ?” Time, if no thing else, forbade extended dis is simply impossible.” “Oh, I couldn’t do it anyway! cussion ; but the diseased stomach I don’t believe the committee would of the drunkard was as much a ... like it. and I know the parents physiological fact in the minds of wouldn’t. Besides, 1 don’t believe that class at the end of the term as in little children signing the pledge the course of the blood, or the They don’t know anything what it action of the gastric juice. “ Was Rip Van Winkle a tem means.” - _____i_ ___ ** Did you ever teach in an un perance man ?” gave the text Tor a graded district school, where you tiny talk with the class-reading1 had all ages from five to eighteen ? Irving’s “Sketch-Book,” while, jn Well, then, you know better than another, the “ red wine ” of the ar mored knights of Bucci -uch was to ask me to teach temperance.” * * “ I don’t know how to begin. I not left unnoted. “ Thjsi? boys and girls—fifteen to wish I’d been taught about it when seventeen years of- age—are old I went to school, then I shouldn’t enough to sign the pledge, and be so ignorant now.” It is the old problem which keep it,” said a thoughful teacher. every faithful teacher must solve An autograph album was bought, in many ways;—“bricks without and on its fly-leaf the pledge was straw ”—“so much to do, so littb written. At the top of each page time ”—so many grown people to a temperance motto was placed: satisfy, »6 manj- little ones to keep “Tho world wants mon—pure men, Free from the taint of sin ; busy. Do we not sometimes for Men whtte lives are clean without, get, dear fellow teachers, that the And true within.” trees are not full-grown and rich “ It is worth a student’s while to with ripening fruit which we have observe calmly how’ tobacco, wine but to reach forth and take ? that and midnight did their work like our work is the steady, quiet drop fiends upon the delicate frame of ping of seed, th? watering and Hoffman, and no less thoroughly tending, and then—hardest of all,— upon his delicate mind.”— Long the waiting for the “ blade, the ear, fellows Hyperion. and the full corn in the ear ?” To * If sinners entice thee, consent few of us, perhaps, will it be given thou not.” to see w’ith mortal eyes the out • “ The Safe Cider Mill.—It takes come of the work of to-day in a the juice fresh from the molars and generation of men and women pure swadows it before it can decay, from the tai fit of alcohol. But as y. B.— Grind in your own mill, no sure as there is a God in heaven other is Bafe for you.” wiio rules on earth, so surely will “ I can afford not to be governor our faithful labor in this, as in of Kansas, but I cafrnot afford to go other directions, have its reward. back on my principles.— Gov. St. But how can the work be done in John. And then the silent little monitor the face of all these difficulties, real or fancied ? Perhaps I can answer went from hand to hand, receiving —the question mo better than by autographs,.each one a symbol of giving you some extracts from my true manhood and womanhood. note-book and letters from practical Who shall tell how much seed was unconsciously sown ? Estimate the teachers. In a pleasant little town in New value of its fruitage, you who England was a high school, com know how boys and girls linger fortably equipped with apparatus over autograph albums, and copy for rewriting—too and library, save that no temper- quotations often, alas ’ those not worth re peating, taken simply because no- thing better hft* impressed - ttaeH upon them. The question of the pledge in school, especially with younger children, must‘be settled in ac cordance with circumstances, JddngJBMSLnoLkLjj»e the °PP°r- tunity of doing work in other directions by its injudicious pre sentation. The language lesson with its reproductions by the __ “ny“ _ TTtirtrw r_ Zaf.-l QtnvJXA<3 cnlinT vii7 that will convey their own moral, “ without note or comment,” are often the best for our purpose. Do not pass unnoticed in the geography class, the curse of w ine in the vine growing countries of Europe, or the forcibly. “Stop the lesson before any when the height of interest has been reached, and each little face is full of eagerness, and tiny hands are held up, showing an earnest wish to hear or tell something more. Five minutes is often quite« long enougn. As to 'TOttertstr, ""11 — have found a short story, a song or picture, a help. There are, in near ly every community,4 interested temperAiine women, and oOfeide as- sistance has been of great v.?lue tn» mo. “ Little paper symbols, such as a chain, a pitcher or a hand, have surprised me in the real pleasure and profit to be derived from so small a thing.__ At the ri*k of seem- __ _ grains in our own dear land. Let ing trivial, I will tell you of our facts such as Ireland’s annual rent chain lesson. First, all responded bill of $57,000,000 and her liquor- very quick y to the question, bill in .ISoTT bi «¡pvl/p/uv// . find ‘ What is this T atwl were nearly a>» place in the added problems given ready to UH of the various mate2— rials of which chains are made. the arithmetic classes. Writes a successful teacher in a This easily led to their uses, and f graded school:— think I shall never forget the thrill “Iliad so much woik to do in of horror that seemed to pass over school that I could give, only an the school when after all kinds of hour a week to temperance. There uses had been mentioned, as they were so many opposed to the work thought, 1 told them of people who that I had to be very careful not to spent large parts of their lives in offend any. At first, I read a tem chains. Criminals, maniacs, and perance story, and questioned the others of like kinds were talked of» scholars on the cause of the trouble; then the cause of the greater part in that way I brought out what of all this misery was pointed out. alcohol is and its evil effects. So Looks of wonder and doubt follow 1 went on gradually till I thought ed when they were informed that they were interested enough to everybody wears chains, and a very take up the catechism on Alcohol. plain, practical lesson on habit, and The scholars who at first opposed especially on habits of temperance te mperance, and stopped their ears and intemperance, wras ' easily when they heard it, soon became taught. This may seem a somewhat interested, and before the term was tedious way to reach a very small through begged me to give more result, but children must be taught time to to it.” and managed in a way to secure A primary teacher says :— their willing attention, and it seems . « 1 have gladly used anything to me that a temperance lesson—or which would serve as a subject any other—in which the teacher from which to draw a lesson. Ex does all the talking and most of the perience has taught me to avoid, thinking, is not calculated to make I from the outset, a formal way of a very lasting impression. introducing the subject, as a sepa “ Here, at least,-is a field that has rate, independent lesson will call not been gone over until nothing the attention of the class—always new remains to be done or told ; to be encountered—who object to tor the class that the coinmon- having temperance taught in the school teacher has the power to public schools. For this reason, the reach can l>e reached in no other • more quietly 'Ind simply the teach way. There must be fixed temper- er begins the work, the better.' 1 . anc* Principles on the part of the have brotight tho subject before the teacher, and faith ‘to lieliove that school in concluding a general ob small efforts are often crowned with ject lesson on water. The children great result«. I wish 1 had the ? will, with very few suggestions or powei to inspire some doubting, questions, tell of its innumerable timid, or careless ones with a true benefits, and the contrast with in appreciation of what cm' be done toxicating drinks will impress them I with very little labor or time, if *1. «* »‘Wr-
