Beginning, pages 17-41

Letters from Anne N. Wilson (pseud.), dated March 4, 14, & 22, 1918

Replies from E. F. L., dated March 8, 18, & 25

This material was previously published, with some alterations, in the PTA's Child-Welfare Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 4 (December 1922), pp. 146-50.

Differences between the magazine version and the book version:

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Beginning, pages 1-16

Letters from Anne N. Wilson (pseud.) dated February 14 & 21, 1918
Replies from E. F. L. dated February 17 & 27

This material was previously published, with some alterations, in the PTA's Child-Welfare Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 3 (November 1922), pp. 105-8.

Differences between the magazine version and the book version:

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Beginning, Preface

General notes:

Book is dedicated to Sir Esme Howard

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Summary of the Preface:

This book is based on the correspondence between E.F.L. and the mother of "Esther," a three-year-old child from a respected, well-to-do Eastern family with all the amenities of town and country life.   Many details of the family's life have been changed for the sake of privacy.

E.F.L says that she published them because one of her school assistants believed that mothers could benefit from this sort of book:

"'When you talk to them about beginning the child's education at home, their minds run to book lessons and nothing else.  How often does a mother write you that, although she graduated from college or normal school, there was nothing in her course that helped her understand her own children's needs or nature?'"

She also mentions a future project:

"Already I am overhauling my correspondence with the mother of a boy in the Middle West, for whom it was necessary to plan book lessons.  When this boy entered school at nine he was placed in sixth grade and a week later promoted to seventh.  The time given to daily lessons ran from fifteen minutes in the beginning, to two hours, but not more."

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and closes with encouragement that even the busiest mother can teach her children at home:

"If you are carefully teaching your young children for five minutes a day, you are doing more to give them a good education than the best college can ever do, because education takes its root in the wise management of the habit-forming period, the wonder-working period that reaches its greatest height between the ages of three and seven."

Educating, Chapter 13

Notes for Chapter 13, "Aids for Home Teaching" (see page images at the Internet Archive)

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Poetry

Longfellow, collected poems:

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Tennyson, collected poems:

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Macaulay, "Horatius at the Bridge"
Emerson, "The Mountain and the Squirrel," "Good-By, Proud World"
Browning, "The Pied Piper of Hamlin"
Joaquin Miller, "Columbus"
J. G. Holland, "Gradatim"
Milton, "Sonnet on his Blindness"
Whittier, "Snowbound," "Barefoot Boy," "In School Days"
Lowell, "Vision of Sir Launfal," "A Day in June," "First Snowfall"


Fairy Stories

Favorite Fairy Tales, illustrated by Peter Newell
Favorites From Fairyland, ed. Ada Van Stone Harris
Famous Stories Every Child Should Know, ed. Hamilton Wright Mabie
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass, illustrated by Peter Newell


Books

Sketch Book, Washington Irving
The Story of the Rhinegold, Chapin
Travels at Home and Travels in History, selected from the works of Mark Twain
Boy Life, selected from the works of William Dean Howells, ed. Percival Chubb
Wonder Book, Hawthorne
Age of Fable, Bulfinch -- for reference & the mother's reading


Text-Books

The Children's Plutarch, F. T. Gould:  Tales of the Greeks, Tales of the Romans

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Nature Study and Life, Clifton Fremont Hodge
Sharp Eyes & Secrets Out of Doors, William Hamilton Gibson
Ways of the Six-Footed, Comstock
Upland and Meadow, Abbot -- especially for those in or near New Jersey

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Current Literature

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Books for Mothers

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The School in the Home, A. A. Berle (also by Berle, but not mentioned:  Teaching in the Home)

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Educating, Chapter 12

Notes for Chapter 12, "How to Teach the Retarded Child" (see page images at the Internet Archive)

Educating, Chapter 11

Notes for Chapter 11, "How to Evolve the Work-Habit" (see page images at the Internet Archive)

Educating, Chapter 10

Notes for Chapter 10, "Observation" (see page images at the Internet Archive)

Educating, Chapter 9

Notes for Chapter 9, "How to Teach Writing and Drawing" (see page images at the Internet Archive)

Educating, Chapter 8

Notes for Chapter 8, "How to Teach Arithmetic" (see page images at the Internet Archive)

Educating, Chapter 7

Notes for Chapter 7, "How to Teach Spelling" (see page images at the Internet Archive)

Educating, Chapter 6

Notes for Chapter 6, "How to Teach English" (see page images at the Internet Archive)

Educating, Chapter 5

Notes for Chapter 5, "Poetry" (see page images at the Internet Archive)

Educating, Chapter 4

Notes for Chapter 4 (see page images at the Internet Archive)

p. 39 "Comenius, Spencer, and Froebel, (...) Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Paul Richter"

Comenius, educational reformer known for the Orbis Pictus, which taught Latin through pictures.

Herbert Spencer

Friedrich Froebel, German inventor of the Kindergarten.

Jean Jacques Rousseau, best known for Emile.

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825), German Romantic writer, also known as "Jean Paul."  His most famous educational work was Levana: Or, The Doctrine of Education.

p. 44 "Susannah Wesley taught her children at home"

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pp. 44-5 "the Jews, who in far-off times had no public educational system"

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p. 46 "Lincoln's mother, uneducated"

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"the Chancellor of Oxford University declared"

George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, known at the time as "Lord Curzon."   Link to news clipping covering his tribute to Lincoln.

"Greeley"

Horace Greeley (1811-1872), American newspaper editor, politician, and would-be radical social reformer.  Left school at age 14, after declining a scholarship to Philips Exeter Academy.

p. 53 "Heaven is not reached at a single bound"

From a poem by the American writer Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819-1881)

"genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains"

Proverbial saying, sometimes attributed to Dr. Johnson or Thomas Carlyle

"he that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city"

Proverbs 16:32

p. 57 "He that toucheth pitch will be defiled"

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 13:1

"Pope's 'Universal Prayer'"

"The Universal Prayer," a poem by Alexander Pope.  First published in 1738.

"Lead, Kindly Light"

Hymn based on a poem by John Henry Newman, written in 1833.

"Voltaire, Gibbon and Ingersoll"

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p. 58 "the first chapter of Genesis"

Genesis 1, Latin Vulgate with Douay-Rheims English translation side by side

Educating, Chapter 3

Notes for Chapter 3 (see page images at the Internet Archive)

Title:  "How to Do Better"

This chapter gives a suggested plan of reform for the city schools.

p. 27 "for many children the fifth grade is the last year of schooling"

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p.28 "abolishing the grammar-school course and establishing a thorough, complete, and self-contained elementary course of from eight to nine years"

Some resemblance to the traditional French model, in which "elementary" and "secondary" schools were two different tracks, rather than different stages of education.  

"The secondary course should begin at the age of ten to permit of sound preparation for the university (...) a year or more would be saved"

The classical course in the public schools would thus last about seven years, from age 10 to 16.  

p. 32 "Foreign languages, if studied at all, should be begun before the age of ten."

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p. 37  "This school did cost more money for the year 1912-13"

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p. 38 "In the public schools of Mt. Lebanon, Penn."

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Educating, Chapter 2

Notes for Chapter 2 (see page images at the Internet Archive)

p. 14 "less than ten per cent. of the pupils will receive what is called a high-school education"

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"considerably later than he would in Europe"

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pp. 16-17 "beginning with the district school employing but one teacher (...) dream of converting it into a 'graded' school."

There were many books and articles around this time that urged the rural ungraded schools to make the most of their strengths, and not try to copy the graded city schools.  Much of the advice would also seem to apply to present-day homeschoolers who are teaching multiple ages at once.

Educating, Chapter 1

Notes for Chapter 1 (see page images at the Internet Archive)

p. 5 "poetry, as the language of childhood, should be the foundation of the work"

This belief was the norm in American pedagogical writings at the time, but began to disappear as the 20th century progressed, and oral reading was replaced by "silent reading" and multiple-choice comprehension tests.  Passages for silent reading were chosen for their simpler language and their ability to hold the children's attention without the teacher's involvement.  They were usually prose, and informational texts were popular.  The goal was to develop speed and efficiency in "getting the thoughts" from the passage.  See e.g. Silent Reading:  A Handbook for Teachers, by Charles and Edith Germane, 1922.

p. 7 "with the help of such a book as the Montessori System"

Possibly The Montessori System in Theory and Practice (1912), by Dr. Theodate L. Smith.   Books on applying Montessori's principles in the home were also starting to appear around this time, including Dorothy Canfield Fisher's A Montessori Mother (1912).

Educating, Preface

Notes for the Preface (see page images at the Internet Archive)

p. v, "some knowledge of my own school work"

E.F.L. opened several Schools of Individual Instruction, based on the same plan as her advice for home teaching.

p. vi, "articles which I have written at the request of the Ladies' Home Journal and other periodicals"

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"Calvin N. Kendall"

Calvin Noyes Kendall (1858-1921), obituary:  Journal of the National Educational Association, Feb. 1922, p. 66

"the first public school of individual instruction"

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"the many teachers who have labored with me to bring this plan into the public schools"

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"my mother and father, from whom I learned whatever good things are set down here"

Mother:  Margaret Cecelia Lynch (nee Ward), 1845-1929.   Born in New York state to Irish parents.  Educated at the Sacred Heart Convent Academy, Manhattanville, NY.

Father:  Daniel Lynch, 1835-1918.  Born in Co. Cavan, Ireland; emigrated to the hamlet of Irishtown, in the town of Minerva, NY.  Owned a mill and a mine.  

The Lynches had 14 children, several of whom died in childhood.  E.F.L. was one of the middle children.