5. Composition of milk. (a) Its substances-albumin, sugar, fat, salt and water. (b) What causes milk to turn sour? 6. Bacteria in milk. (a) What is bacteria? (b) Where does it come from? (c) The effect of bacteria upon milk. (d) Milk graded according to the number of bacteria it contains. 7. Pasteurization. (a) What is pasteurization? (b) Why so called? (c) How is it accomplished? (d) What effect has it upon bacteria? (e) How does pasteurized milk differ from certified milk? An excellent opportunity for the correlation of geography is afforded in the study of the milk supply. 1. The distribution of cows. (a) Locate the European countries from which our beef and dairy cattle originated. (b) What countries do not use milk for food? (c) Describe the foods used in these countries-China and Japan. (e) What are the six great dairy states? The five great beef states? 2. Locate the following cities. (a) Elgin, Ill., the greatest butter market. (b) New York City, the greatest milk consuming city in the United States. (c) Chicago, the greatest market for beef-cattle. (d) Kansas City, St. Joseph, St. Louis, other great cattle markets. 3. Show the relationship existing between agriculture and the milk industry. Blank maps of the United States may be colored to show the location of the states and cities engaged in cattle-raising and dairy pursuits. Trace on these maps the routes of transportation by rail and by water. This furnishes a motive for the study of time-tables and for computing the cost of transportation. Show the relationship existing between the expense of transporting the milk to New York City, and the high cost to the consumer. Indicate on the map of the North Atlantic States the seven states that supply the two million quarts of milk consumed in New York City daily. Show the dependence of the people of a great city like New York, upon the products of the country, not alone in the matter of milk but for its food supply in general. While the study of the milk supply does not offer as much in the matter of correlation with manual training, as with other subjects, there is opportunity afforded for work in clay and wood. Pupils can construct the lid and dasher for a glass jar that will serve as a churn, in which butter can be made. In the classes of young children, cow-barns fitted with stalls and mangers, milking stools and pails, can be constructed to accommodate cows cut from bass-wood blanks and painted to resemble the different breeds of dairy cows. In drawing and construction, posters representing farm scenes, with freehand cutting of cows and calves in the fields, etc., are suggestions that admit of wide variation. There is also a large selection of songs and memory gems to be used in connection with a study of farm life and the dairy. If excursions to dairy farms are not within the range of possibilities for many of the children in Ungraded Classes, this lack may be partially supplied by trips to the museums to see pictures of farm activities. In studying the relationship existing between health and pure milk, the board of health publications and "Town and Health" by Francis Jewett, contain some interesting information. Dr. Charles E. North has prepared for the New York Milk Committee, a little pamphlet entitled "Safeguarding Milk." In order that the class might be stimulated to do something in the nature of research, each pupil was given a copy of the booklet and asked to find the answers to such questions as these, which were written on the blackboard. 1. How are epidemics spread by the use of impure milk? 2. Name five diseases whose contagion has been traced to bacteria in milk. 3. How has the death-rate among babies been reduced since pasteurization is compulsory in New York City? 4. What is certified milk? 5. What grades of milk are for sale in New York City? 6. Why should the milk supply of a great city like New York be controlled by public authorities? Not only were the pupils stimulated by the study of pure milk in relation to health, to investigate conditions under which milk was kept in their homes, but parents also were interested in the information contained in the literature which the pupils took home with them. Two of the children reported that their mothers were not going to buy loose milk at the grocers hereafter, because of the high per cent of bacteria it contains, but would buy bottled milk, even though the cost is more. Intensive study of a problem means not a little work for the teacher, but the results in initiative, interest and attitude prove the effort very much worth while. The main result to be achieved from experimental study is not so much the acquisition of facts, but rather a development of the power of thought and following up the thought with action. Dr. Eliot says: "For the individual, the result is acquired power to produce, to imagine, and to enjoy; and this is the end of all true education." ELSA M. PAUL, P. S. 179 Man. SEASONAL POEMS AND SONGS Child's First Book of Poetry, Baker. Little Birdie, Tennyson. Over in the Meadow, Olive Wadsworth. The Wind, Robert Louis Stevenson. The Bluebird, Emily Huntington Miller. Wishing, William Allingham. How the Flowers Grow, Gabriel Setone. March, Wordsworth. Little Dandelion, Helen B. Bostwick. Robert of Lincoln, William Cullen Bryant. New Education, Music Reader, Book 1. Tell Me, Pretty River. A Story. Song of the Toys. Spring is Coming. April. Pussy Willow. Violet. My Kite. Rain. Days of Spring. Welcome May. Rain Harp. Robin's Journey. Flower Dancer. New American Music Reader, Book 1. O, Come, Sweet Mary. Little Raindrops. CLASS MANAGEMENT THE SOURCE OF INTEREST Nothing will stimulate endeavor like once tasting the joy of achievement. Studies of children's interests show that action and motion appeal preeminently. But it is when "I act" and "I move" that interest is supreme. In the child's world "I can" precedes "I know," and the most valuable type of interest is associated with the consciousness of power, while the habit of failure inevitably kills progress. An unfailing recipe for arousing interest, therefore, is the enlargement of the "I can" in the school life of every child. What mysterious obstructions sometimes interfere with development! A boy who had been in school a year spelled very well orally, but read with absolute loathing, and so slowly that a just division of time would get him through one sentence while other children finished a whole page. Finally, through individual work, his teacher discovered that his mental processes had never established the connection between h-a-t, which he spelled, and the printed hat which he read. His lack of interest in school had been attributed to adenoids, but once the circuit was established, reading became a passion with him, and his consciousness of success made school a joy. Another seven-year-old was not interested in school because "he could not concentrate," so his teacher thought. Never did he finish a task assigned him, and he seemed destitute of "the number sense." Individual recitation made it plain that he had never learned to find for himself the sum, difference, or product of any two numbers, however small. A numeral frame and careful direction soon established his ability to work out problems, and the numeral frame became his constant companion until he voluntarily discarded it. Oblivious to all distractions, he would work happily at number combinations through a twenty-minute period, and came to declare that "arithmetic was his favorite study." The interest aroused by the consciousness of power was marked in a boy of nine whose delicate health had kept him out of school previously. He began reading the primer, and soon acquired the ability to study out words both phonetically and through their relation to the context. He had listened to much good literature, and would have refused to hear the primer, but one morning he came to school radiant with the joy of success. "I read fifty pages of my primer last night," he said. "I read it all alone, and I found it very interesting." Naturally we can deal successfully only with things which are related to us either actually or potentially. The fisherman scorns sea treasures which would delight an Agassiz. The farmer treads unwittingly upon the primrose. The housewife despises the cookery in which she finds no chemical nor mathematical problems. We all go blindly past the treasure |