Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

April, 192 3 121 Visual Education in Washington, D. C. And then began a number of experiments, sometimes by school people who used the museums, sometimes by museums which offered themselves for use. Major J. W. Powell was, in the '80s, the head of the Geological Survey in Washington. His brother, W. B. Powell, coming from Aurora, Illinois, was appointed superintendent of the Washington schools. The affiliations he made through his brother opened to his use the rich reservoirs of materials controlled by the scientific departments of the Federal government — although these departments had always realized their educational responsibilities— and Mr. Powell set the children of the schools free to use them. In those days groups of children might be seen studying history in the rotunda of the Capitol, science in the National Museum, astronomy at the observatory, art in the Corcoran Art Gallery, botany in woods and fields, physiography in the open country, zoology at the Zoo. There was nothing that pleased the superintendent better than to call on a teacher some sunny morning, find her schoolroom empty, and hear her neighbors explain : "She took her class to the State Department." "Good ! good !" the superintendent would respond; "she couldn't do better!" In those days another teacher and I bought a lantern on credit, borrowed from J. Stanley Brown a set of slides on Alaskan seals, gave a lecture after school at five cents admission, and made a first payment. Then one of us took charge of both classes while the other took the lantern over to another school, where the lecture was repeated, the profits being divided between the two schools. A few of these excursions paid for the lantern and bought some really necessary geographic slides. But for the most part we borrowed from the Federal government and from private individuals, chiefly lecturers before the Geographic Society. When we had proved to the parents that the slides were germane to the old educational subjects, they too began to help. We formed a musical and a dramatic society. These gave money-making plays, concerts and operas, and we stocked up with apparatus. There was a monitor of the windows, a monitor of the lantern, a monitor of the microscope. The windows were no sinecure. There were six of them, and they had to be draped with table covers and borrowed bedspreads during the recess preceding the lantern lesson. Finally the superintendent found us at it, and next day came a workman to fit us up with black shades. Boys' and Girls' Scientific Societies Scientific societies were Washington's specialty. There were eleven of them: Geographic — the mother of the present National Geographic Magazine ; Geologic ; Biologic, etc. In imitation of these adult societies, our seventh and eighth grades undertook to teach themselves science, parliamentary procedure, essay-writing, illustration, handiwork, . public speaking, and reference book work by forming scientific societies of their own. They thought in terms of society meetings ; their teachers, in terms of power gained. It was what would in these days be called a project. There was rivalry among g r o u ps , called squads. I remember that on one occasion, when Arctic Exploration was the subject, our meeting room was full of objects borrowed from three resident explorers, two of whom were General Greeley and Lieutenant Peary. How committees of thirteen-year-old children of the lower middle class, arriving unannounced with borrowed grocery wagons, managed to win the Peary and Greeley families to lend their personal souvenirs, I don't know. THE CHILDREN'S READING ROOM IN THE NEWARK LIBRARY Each room in the Library is redecorated every few weeks with pictures and objects calculated to appeal to the interest and curiosity of those who use the rooms. Familiarity dulls perception; therefore static exhibits have no place in the scheme of these wise visualists. When Tommy Jones and his sister Sue, repairing after school to the busy Children's Room, find a bit of faded medieval tapestry on the wall where last week hung an Oriental prayer rug, they "look hard," ask inquisitive questions of the friendly attendant, and collect answers that encourage "looking it up" — that voluntary, enthusiastic, motivated type of research which everybody knows does boys and girls the greatest good in the world.