The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

\ WINNETKA WEEKLY TALK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1923 19 WINNETKA MAKES FITTING OBSERVANCE OF EDUCATION WEEK personal judgment, rather than on «Ci- entific data. We have not as yet any scientific data that shows us clearly how children can be socialized. he Modern Classroom But we have a fund of experience. We know that working together for a common end gives a sense of group loy- alty and a much needed training in co- operation. I went into a third grade room the other day. There was a strong fragrance of grape jelly in the room. Stretched across two chairs was a jelly bag. The room looked utterly unlike an ordinary class room. The children were taking school time in the third grade to make jelly. Why? These youngsters were preparing glasses of Christmas jelly for the orphans up at Lake Bluff. They were learning through this joint endeavor a lesson of helpful- ness and co-operation. A second grade little girl came home to her mother a few weeks ago and said: "Oh, mamma, I'm on a commit- tee. I don't know the name of it, but it's to make everybody good and happy." I do not know which particular com- mittee the child was on. I do know, however, that children in the Winnetka schools are participating in the 'gov- erning of their own schools, the keep- ing of the playgrounds in order, the beautifying of the class rooms, the man- agement of their assemblies. We are not having the children do these things because we think they can do them bet- ter than we can. It is because we are trying to train them in the habit of working together to a common end. We are trying to give them the rudimentary lessons of citizenship not by precept but by actual work. The Winnetka Schools, to sum up, are striving to give complete develop- ment to every individual child by giv- ing him a mastery of the common es- sentials, by giving him the opportunity to express himself freely through vari- ous channels, and by giving him prac- tice in doing things co-operatively with others. These three aspects of our main endeavor are common to all the schools of Winnetka, private and public and high school alike. They are re- sulting in making school life happy and human instead of dreary and me- chanical. They are signs of spring time. Socialized Instruction By WILLARD BEATTY ~ (Principal, Skokie School) | A school which devotes its entire at- tention to the teaching of the three R's is falling short of its duty in an Ameri- can community. America is committed to the devolopment of a democracy and the American school system is the prim- ary means which the nation has chosen to train and prepare its youth to live and function as competent citizens of a democracy. The newer schools which are realizing the obligation resting upon them and which are attempting to live up to this obligation cannot for one instant ignore the necessity for teach- ing the three R's. The ability to read clearly and intelligently is an essential tool to citizenship. The ability to util- ize quickly and accurately the funda- mentals of arithmetic is an essential tool in modern life. In the same way a knowledge of certain facts in history, geography and science are tools which we all need in order to function in- telligently under modern socialized con- ditions. Retain Fundamentals The backbone of the older education is still a fundamental of the newer edu- cation, and it is only as we develop a technique which enables us to teach more rapidly, more accurately and more efficiently the fundamentals of English, arithmetic and the social studies, that we have given to the child the necessary tools which will enable us to prepare him adequately for citi- zenship. The development of the individual system in Winnetka has given us 4d technique by which we are enabled to decrease the time allotment of the tool subjects and allow us the time neces- sary for the fuller socialized develop- ment of the individual for his place as a citizen. The school of today and tomorrow must depend as much upon its shops, its laboratories, its gymmasia, its library and its assembly halls for the production of a well-rounded scholar, as upon the class rooms wherein the fundamentals are taught. School has ceased to be a prepara- tion for life and has become a cross- section of tife itself. The day to day contacts of children within the social group are developing that sense of human interdependence which is essen- tial in our new world. Happiness In Service . Our school here at Skokie has set for itself the realization of a single law of life--the law of happiness through service and creation. When this building cpened its doors to the throng of children a little over a yea: ago, we on the faculty set for ourselves but one goal, and that goal was the creation of a happy school. Happiness shop, laboratory, athletic, and dramatic activities which would call forth the best creative power of each individual in the school. One can never. hope to be universally successful, but by and by the vast majority of the school re- sponded and we had a busy school, hap- py in its creative activity. We played basket ball for all there was in us. We built boats, furniture and innumerable other things in our shops; we cxperi- mented in our laboratories: we cooked; we sewed; we costumed, staged, and acted fantasies; we met tegether in social groups to discuss the direction, organization and the administration of our school. And as a result of this creative activity we found that we need- ed the tools of the older education, and we found that as this need developed that the work in arithmetic, the work in reading and grammar had become much easier than it used to be. For after all a thing is hard only when you don't know anything about it. When we approached each problem with a desire to master it because it filled an immediate need, we found out how to work. And finding how to work was only one step removed from the joy which comes from mastery. We were soon busy doing things for its own sake. We found that the older sub- jects had lost their terrors, and we did more work and better work because we wanted to and were happy in the doing of it. The conservative of a few years ago, who resented the introduction of the "fads and frills" into our curri- culum has been confounded. For instead of taking thought and attention and ef- fort from the tool subjects, they have emphasized more clearly than was ever seen before the need of the tool sub- jects in life. Socialized activity, creation, life, is not perforce limited to the Winnetka schools. Other schools have learned that happiness is life; that you can't be selfish, that you can't be inconsider- ate, that vou can't tread on the other fellow's toes and be happy yourself. It is all a matter of turn about--you help me and I'll help you, and together we'll succeed--and we will be happy in our Success. Time For Social Life But the big ® thing which has hap- pened to Winnetka is that we have been able, by letting each fellow advance at his own rate and according to his own skill, to save a vast amount of time. We are capitalizing that time in our social activities, so that your son and vour daughter may learn, by living, the secret of a better life. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating" and the eaters are on the increase. When yon rather a deadly effect on a large pro- portion of its enrollment. My eighth grade graduated less than one-third of those who entered school eight years previously. More than two-thirds had dropped out along the wayside, un- equipped for life. Today the children of those beys and girls are finding within the school the thing that they want, and that they need, and they are staying with us in increasing numbers, and from Winnetka statistics there is no reason to suppose that the increase will cease. The High School Frederick Edson Clerk, principal of New Trier Township High school, con- tinued the discussion of the evening by illustrating in what measures, and by what means, the work at the New Trier Township High school was being done with a view to meeting the require- ments of individual students. He de- scribed the function of the High School as heing concerned not only with men- tal training but with physical, moral, social, and ethical training as well. After describing the contrast between the traditional high school class room of a generation ago with the teaching methods of the present day, by virtue of which students co-operating in small groups gather information from other sources than the text-books and after analyzing the information and eliminat- ing the non-essential parts of it, through class or group effort, arrive at general conclusions of fact or the discovery of a principle of action. Explains System As a means of developing character and organizing educational, moral, social, and vocational guidance, Mr. Clerk explained the organization of the Adviser System. As this system is perfected, a more complete statement of it will be offered for publication in a later issue of the Winnetka Talk. It is through the Adviser System that the very important matter of a definite contact with the home and the school is established. Another organization described by Mr. Clerk in his talk was the Student Counc'l. This organization is planned to provide an opportunity for an ex- pression of student opinion on various school matters in which they are con- cerned and interested and which gives them a part in the general management and operation of the school. A more detailed description of the S'uden Council is being prepared for a future comes only through creative acuavity. We strove to develop a program of issue of the North Shore weekly papers. In concluding his speech, Mr. Clerk Editor's note: The accompanying con- tributions were read last Thursday upon the occasion of Winnetka Poets' Day al the Woman's club, held in observance of National Education Week. Other of the score of contributions will be published in succeeding issues of Win- netka Talk as space will permit. No crideavor is made to select the poems on the basis of merit. On the contrary, they are taken quite at random. We permit the reader to be the judge. Watch for the poems in succeeding issues of the Talk! A RONDEAU FOR WINNETKA POETS DAY (November 15, 1923.) To my Home-Club, on Poets' Day, Could I but proper tribute pay, My pen in golden ink I'd dip, My metrical feet should lightly trip And I'd toss many a bright bouquet. Alas, I fear I am too gay, And catch my balance in dismay, For some lines back those feet did slip, My dear Home-Club. Since in a rondeau one must stay In iambs and strict rules obey, For my good garland T'll just snip One bloom for you--'tis Fellowship-- And toss it forth in loving way To my Home-Club. Grace Neahr Veeder. WAVES OF TRAFFIC [ sit in my slow-going car, Driving south on Sheridan Road, Meeting the waves of traffic from the city. Here they come, The limousine, poh : Bp I'he hurried, panting Ford, The chummy roadster of the newly- wed,-- . The wide-wheeled truck, (On necessary business)-- Selfconscious but bold and threatening, (The armoured car). They pass in a long heartbeat, Started an hour ago In Chicago, twenty miles away, By an officer's whistle for the north- bound traffic. Between the pulses I watch the dark blue lake. Here they come again, The touring-car, the Ford, The roadster and the Ford, Started an hour ago in the city By the whistle for the northbound cars.-- I have my hand on the pulse of Chi- cago. In the zone of quiet, near the hospital, There goes along with me, for a flash, A truck full of soldiers from Fort Sheridan.-- The war comes back. I see our boys standing, Sixty on a truck. Holding one another's shoulders As thev race, with siren screaming, Throueh French villages.-- " afayette, we are coming!" In a full wave, Again the cars pass All the cars that are-- And T drive on. I scem to feel the heartbeat of the world. Leila M. Starr. 70:4 SCHOO!L, BOY The schoolrcom walls enclose a little space : Where with hent head your docile thoughts all seem On Caesar fixed; the world without a dream, Forgotten for relentless mood and case. The Latin meanings patiently you trace. Determined to forget some boyish scheme That waits the closing bell. Till sud- den gleam Of sunlight on the place. vour page transiorms Then fly vour thoughts to summer's treasure quest Where white gulls arching blue And circling fish-hawks utter plaintive cries Above the ings nest. Star-lighted nights, awakenings in the dew Summen lies. flash against the loose sticks of their fledg- vou where a fog-girt island Ruth Ww. Porter. emphasized the need of very close co- operation between the home and the school. indicating that the more impor- cnt objectives of education could not realized mnlese there could be a co- inerative effort es'abliched in which all i the clements c nir'bhutine to the edu- 1 ~¢iom of the children m'ght work to- gcther. Winnetka Poets Give Readings at Woman's Club Session a --se im i INDIAN SUMMER Across the distant meadows a faint haze, Like some melodious echo of things done And gone, lingers beneath the mellow sun, Enchanter of these Indian summer days. This is the time for longing, and for dreams Dreamt in the golden glow of autumn's heart ; Wishes and wisher are not far apart; Life is the miracle it often seems. Too soon the colored warmth will cool, and pale Under {rost's silver touch; and we, the while, Prizing fall's softened beauty, then can smile : : Rackmard, upon our vanished summer trail. Emily M. Boyd. DREAMS AND REALITY "Tis sweet to sit and dream by day, When little children romp and play. Beside my door they cluster about, In joyous glee, with happy shout. "I'is sweeter still, in evening's hush To hear the robin's good-night lush Of song, as in the tree he swings, Inviting night's enfolding wings. And when the night is dark and still And quiet every bird and rill, "T'is+then, ah then, 1 love to dream In lonely nook, beside the stream. Tis sweet, ah sweet, to see each star, First pale, then brighter from afar, [ts gleaming, scintillating light Fling thru the curtain of the night. "I'is then I feel a strange content, For unto me this day was lent To find in God's own wondrous world, The way His beauties are unfurled. C..S. HH. 1919. COOL THINGS nn . . 2 ~ I'here is coolness in the. touch of flow- ers on your cheek, : 5 There is coolness in the depth of still blue shadow, 70 THE Spirit of Wind, flying so wild vet kind Over the meadows, Over the hills, WIND SPIRIT Blowing the clouds away that made the sky so gray. Friend of the shining sun, Spirit of the wind. Cooling a fevered head, rousing spirit dead, Healer of sick, Mender of souls. some Now and forever free, fly over land and sea, Bearing a message, Whistling a song. ; Jessie West. (Second prize, New Trier High School, 1922.) A MOTHER'S PRAYER A baby's head upon my breast; A baby's breath, through parted lips, a fragrance sweet, A little bddy, yielding, warm, a quick heart-beat, I'wo tiny shell-palmed hands, two baby feet. A baby's heart upcn my breast, A baby's heart upon my soul; A baby's groping steps to guide, they must not stray. Two tiny, trusting fect to lead from day to day, + ; g Oh God send wisdom irom above, point me the way. A baby's life upon my soul. Mary Eames Marble. North Shore Window & House Cleaning Co. 10 Prouty Annex, Winnetka, Ill. Phone Win. 1994 CALL WINNETKA 1217 unexpected guests in for luncheon. When drop There is coolness in camphor berries "And in the. smell of rain. But there's a cooler thing I know--the sound Of the taste of woodlands after clear spring water over twlight stones-- My lady's laughter. 2 Aspen leaves a flutter in the dawn Why do you tremble so? Do you await the coming of the sun Up over yonder hill? Be still, frail things, be still. At dawn he comes, at twilight he will go. Also for good things for a Quick, Easy Sunday Dinner. = | Canned Goods Home Made Salads Cold Meats Hot Roasts Home Made Pies and Cakes Cunningham's Ice Cream Brick and Bulk WE DELIVER Leave your order ahead Hot Meats and Salads A. SANTI 905 Linden Ave. Hubbard Woods for Marcella Mettler. are:- Saturday Journal. WILLIAM HADLEY Evening Post, Country MAGAZINE AGENCY Ponovels and. now Subscriptions oo Magazines solicited. Gentleman Our specials and Ladies' Home 913 OAK STREET Phone Winn. 2s WINNETKA IT WILL DO YOUR CAR GOOD to have a painting and finishing every now and then. Painting a house, bridge, or it with a preservative, and it is true of autos also. painting our way is real car insurance. a piece of machinery coats Auto REAR OF WIL. STATE BANK TEL.WILMETTE 684WILMETTE JLL. COMMUNITY HOUSE THOMAS MEIGHAN cos. pr GEORGE ADE"S "BACK HOME AND BROKE" eerste errr rret reer Bete egg rrr 1 2 NEXT FRIDAY EVE |