Basic Step by Step

Basic Step By Step

Part II.

1 . The Body 2 . Food 3 . Work 4 . The Weather 5 . The Family 6 . A Building 7 . Fire 8 . The Country 9 . The Sea 10. Time	11. The Machine 12. Business 13. Money 14. Noise 15. News 16. Amusement 17. Education 18. Reading 19. The Earth 20. History	21 . Invention 22 . Feeling 23 . Art 24 . Trade 25 . Transport 26 . Peace 27 . Language 28 . Society 29 . Government 30 . Science
Notes for the Teacher		-- 40 pages

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16 . AMUSEMENT

- - - Things - - -			Qualities
amusement laugh	chain collar cup friend hat jump love monkey neck	rail run shirt stop tail top trousers twist whip	kind -- cruel happy -- sad fat

Other Words :

smile ;
humour (e) ;
interest , music , pleasure , song , story ;
ball (s) , card (s) , competition (s) , fiction (s), picture (s) , play (e) , record (s) , sage (s) , and (e) .

16 . AMUSEMENT

Yesterday my friend and I saw something which gave us great amusement. We were in the garden with a ball when a man came through the street with a music-box, and on the top of it was a small monkey. The monkey had on red trousers and a blue shirt. On its neck was a collar, and on this was a chain.
When the man was opposite the house he made a stop. Some boys and girls were with him, and my friend and I got up on the rail at the front of the house, where we saw everything over their heads.
The man took the chain off the collar and the monkey got down with a jump and went to the hand-part of the music box and gave it a turn. After that the man took it, and while he made the music the monkey got up on the box again and took the hat of the man and put it on its head. That made us all give a laugh, because the hat came down over the face of the monkey almost of its chin. After that the monkey did some other things which gave the boys and girls much amusement.
After a short time, the man gave a cup to the monkey, and it came and put it out to everyone for money. But when it went near to one boy, he put out his hand and gave the tail of the monkey a twist. That was cruel, and my friend, who is very kind, gave a cry, and said “Please don’t do that !" The face of the boy got very red, and he let the tail go. The monkey went quickly to the man, who took it in his arms and said kind words to it, till it seemed happy again. Love makes animals happy.
My friend is very sad when he sees an animal sad or in pain. Boys and girls are sometimes cruel to animals because they do not see that what they do gives them pain. If a man gives a horse blows with a whip, we all see that that is cruel. But if you have a dog and keep it on a chain and do not ever let it have a run, or if you give it so much food that ii gets fat and slow, that is almost as cruel, though it may seem kind.
When we gave my father an account of the monkey he said : “When you two boys are older such things will not give you amusement. Animals are not happy when they are taken about the streets in coats and trousers, even if their owners seem kind to them.” We said that if the monkey came again we would not go and see it, and my father said that he might later give me a dog.

Questions

1 . What came through the street when the two boys were playing in the garden ?
2 . What did the monkey have on ?
3 . What did the two boys do which made it possible for them to see over the heads of the others?
4 . How did the monkey get down from the box?
5 . Why did the boys and girls give a laugh?
6 . What do you have drink in at a meal?
7 . What cruel thing did a by do to the monkey?
8 . What makes animals happy?
9 . What cruel thing may a man do to a horse?
10. How may you be cruel to a dog even if you do not give it blows or keep it on a chain?

Answers

17 . EDUCATION

- - - Things - - -			Qualities
education knowledge school	answer berry bite bone card feather fold kick	lift look muscle question toe touch walk wing	strong -- feeble important necessary stiff

Other Words :

history , learning , science ;
history (s) ;
attention , behaviour , book , brain , fast , language , law , memory , mind , observation , reading , reason , rule , thought, writing ;
reason (e) , though (e)

17 . EDUCATION

The business of a school is education,, which is teaching and learning. Education is the way to knowledge, because we get knowledge by learning, and teaching gives us help in learning. Any help which is given to us in our learning is teaching.
We go to school for education, but we do not get all our education there. Every sort of learning is part of it, and much of our learning is done outside the school-room. When you are having a walk in the country or in the town, you are seeing new things and getting new knowledge all the time. And if an older person is with you, he is giving you teaching every time he gives an answer to a question about the things which you see. Even if he says only that the bright red berry which you are putting out your hand for is a poison berry, or that you are in no danger of a bite from the bright fly on your hand, all that is education.
We get the greatest help from teaching abut such things as plants, or animals, or machines, when we may give them a look and a touch. A country friend may give us an account of the wing or a bird, but till we see a feather our knowledge will not be complete. We may have the knowledge that the help of a muscle is necessary for every move of a finger or a toe, and that other muscles are doing the work when we give anything a lift or a kick ; but if we did not ever give attention to our arms and legs we would not see how the muscles do these things. And though words may give us help in learning the form and size of every bone in our bodies, they do not give us the knowledge which we get when we see a bone or put our hands on it.
Another important part of our education is doing things and making things. We may get much knowledge from seeing something being made, but we get much more when we take the hammer and wood or the needle and cloth in our hands. In most schools this sort of learning comes first. They let the young boys and girls do things for which strong fingers and much knowledge are not necessary, like getting a house or a ship cut from stiff card or making small boats and boxes with bright paper by giving it one fold after another. These things may not seem very important, but by doing them well the feeble fingers are getting stronger and the young brains are getting knowledge which will have a value for more important work.

Questions

1 . What are the two processes in education ?
2 . Why is education the way to knowledge ?
3 . When we take a walk in the country with an older person, how may he give us knowledge ?
4 . When do we get the greatest help from teaching about such things as plants and animals ?
5 . What two things do the bodies of birds have which our bodies do not have ?
6 . What is necessary for moving fingers or toes ?
7 . What are the hardest parts of our bodies ?
8 . Why do schools let young boys and girls do and make things ?
9 . Why is work for which strong fingers are necessary not given to young boys and girls at school ?
10. Give two examples of work which they may do.

Answers

18 . READING

- - - Things - - -			Qualities
ink letter page print reading writing	book grip mark meeting pen pencil pleasure	pocket roll slip skirt snake story surprise	tight -- loose beautiful secret yellow

Other Words :

advertisement , note , prose , verse ;
cop;y (e) , fiction (s) , letter (e) , star (e) , stop (e) ;
account , hearing , knowledge , list , record , statement ;
line (e) , sense (e)

18 . READING

One of the first and most important parts of school teaching is reading, because a book is the shortest way to most of the knowledge necessary for a good education. If men had no knowledge of writing they would have no books for reading. Learning the form of every letter is necessary for writing, but less so for reading at the start. You may get a knowledge of the form of a word before you have a knowledge of the separate letters in it. But you will not get very far till you give attention to the letters, and the sounds which the letters have.
Writing on paper may be done with a pencil or with a pen and ink. Very young boys and girls have pencils for writing, because if pens are given to them they may let the ink go on the table when they are taking the pen from the ink-pot, or a slip of the pen may make a dirty mark on a clean page of the writing-book.
In early times men had no print, but only writing, and a book did not have the form which it has now. It had no pages then, and no stiff cover. It was a roll. This was before any paper such as we have now was made. The writing was put on something which was very like paper, but stiffer than paper.
Reading is more than a way to knowledge ; we may get great pleasure from it. Reading a good story makes most boys and girls happy, even those whose school books give them the least pleasure.
Yesterday I saw in a book an old story about a beautiful young girl who had no mother. The woman to whom her father was married was cruel to her, and made her do all the dirty work of the house, and she was very sad. The smooth skin of her hands got rough, and her feet were cut by the stones, because even in the very cold weather she had no shoes.
One day when she was coming through some trees after getting wood for the fires, she saw a feeble old woman putting sticks in a basket. “You seem tired,” said the girl. “Let me get your basket full for you, while you have a rest.” “Yes, please do so. I am very tired,” said the old woman, and the girl took the basket. When she came again with the sticks, the old woman said : “You are a kind girl, so I will do something for you.” While she was saying these words she took a small round box from the pocket of her skirt. Inside was a small parcel with a tight cord round it. When she got it loose the girl saw a bit of bright yellow stone in the paper. “ Take this,” said the old woman, “ and put it in the bed of the woman who is cruel to you, but keep out meeting secret. Do not say anything about it, even to your father.” Then the girl gave a cry of surprise, because suddenly the old woman was not there, but only a small yellow snake going very quickly over the grass.
With the parcel tightly in her grip, the girl went to the house, and that night, before the woman was in bed, she put the stone under the cover. In the morning, the woman was nowhere in the house, and she was not ever seen again. Though the surprise of the father and all the servants was great, they were all much happier when she was gone. And only the girl gave any attention to the account of a small yellow snake which was seen going from the house that morning.

Questions

1 . Why is the learning of reading one of the first steps in education ?
2 . What knowledge is necessary for writing ?
3 . What two ways of writing on paper are there ?
4 . How were books in early times different in form from the books we have now ?
5 . Before there was paper, what was writing done on ?
6 . What may reading do for us in addition to giving us knowledge?
7 . What sort of reading gives most boys and girl‘s pleasure ?
8 . Where did the old woman take the box from ?
9 . What was in the parcel ?
10. What did the girl do when she saw a snake in the place of the old woman ?

Answers

19 . THE EARTH

- - - Things - - -			Qualities
earth moon mountain star	attraction direction distance dust existence growth middle month	motion powder quality range root seed substance year	thick -- thin fixed physical present

Other Words :

air , island , land , mine , river , sea , sky , sun ;
country (e) ;
coal , map , metal , nation , oil , said , sand , stone , system ;
space (e)

19 . THE EARTH ¹

At one time men said that the earth was flat, and fixed in space like an island in a great sea. But now everyone has the knowledge that the earth has almost the form of an orange and is all the time going round. It has two sorts of motion. Every 24 hours it makes a complete turn, like a ball with a rod through the middle when you give it a push with your finger. And all the time it has been doing this, it has been going forward, till at the end of a year it has gone completely round the sun.
The motion of the earth round the sun gives us summer and winter ; its other motion gives us night and day. The direction of the turn is from west to east, and that is why we see the sun going across the sky from east to west.
The earth goes round the sun and not out into space because the distance between the earth and the sun is kept fixed by the attraction of the sun. Every star in the sky is kept in its place by attraction. Our earth is a cold star. It is one of the 8 great stars which go round the sun.
All physical things have this quality of attraction for other physical thing The attraction between the earth and the moon keeps the moon going round the earth, and other stars have other moons which are kept near them by their attraction. The moon goes round the earth in a shorter time than the earth goes round the sun. The moon goes round the earth in a month.
A very long time before the existence of men, the earth was a mass of fire going round in space. It got colder till some thing like a hard skin came over it, thin at the start, but slowly getting thick, though even now the substance in the middle of our earth has not got cold.
At a later time the earth had water all over it. Then, here and there, a mass of land came up through the sea, making a mountain or a range of mountains, and the first dry land came into existence.
But this new dry land was not like dry land at the present time. It had no plants or animals on it, and not even any earth for the seed or root of a plant. The earliest plants and animals did not have their existence on the land, but in the water, and some books say that all plants and animals have come from a substance like jelly in the sea. The growth of plants was not possible till powder from the stones had made a cover of dust for the land. Then, slowly, some of the animals came from the water on to the land, and from them the first land animals came. But men did not come into existence till much later.

Questions

Answers

1 . "The earth," The expansion from earth as a substance to the earth as the star covered by that substance, and on which we are living, is a very natural one, needing only to be pointed out to be quite clear.

20 . HISTORY

- - - Things - - -			Qualities
event history record	addition colour comparison desire expert guide increase judge library	line map need opinion position potato process reason	past -- future certain frequent probable

Other Words :

power (e) ;
agreement , change , development , discovery , government , nation , peace , religion , society , tendency , trade , war

20 . HISTORY

If we make a comparison between the time men have been on the earth and that part of their existence of which we have any record, we see that the start of history was not very early. The only account we have of the time before men had a knowledge of writing, and even of a long time after, is that which has been given by the broken stones of early towns, and bits of metal and other substances which have been taken from them. Then come records on stone and some bits of writing on paper, but these are not frequent till much later, and not one of them give us complete and certain knowledge of any event.
Even after the start of history, the records are far from complete. One reason for this may be that much of the knowledge which we have a desire for at the present time may not have seemed important to men of past times, and may not ever have been put in writing. But the most important reason is the loss of most of the old records. Men have not at all times kept such things with care, and a great number of those which would have had value for history are not now in existence.
When we come to later times, we have more records, but they do not all give us certain knowledge. Sometimes they give us two almost opposite accounts of one event. A history expert gives attention to all the old accounts and then says which is the most probable one. But though lie may he a good judge, lie is only giving us his opinion, and so our knowledge the event is only probable, not certain.
In later years men saw the need for records, and in our time the record of every important event in the history of any country is kept with the greatest care. Every library has shelves of books about the present time. The men of future times will certainly have a good knowledge of the process which has made them what they are. But even with all these books as a guide, some of their experts will probably have opposite opinions about some past events.
A map gives great help in the learning of history. The position of any country on the map is frequently a good guide to a knowledge of its history. On some maps of the earth every country has a line round it, and all the land which is part of it has one colour. If we make a comparison between earlier and later maps, we will see from an increase in the amount of any colour that the country which has that colour has made an addition to its land. Though some countries have not as much land as others, they may be quite as happy, and even happier.
History is not only the account of great events. It is the record of the existence of men and women, and things which seem small may sometimes be very important. In Ireland the growth of the first potato was an event in its history, and is as much a part of its record as the growth of its towns.

Questions

Answers

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