MORNING EXERCISES FOR ALL THE YEAR A Day Book for Teachers BY JOSEPH C. SINDELAR Author of NIXIE BUNNY IN MANNERS-LAND BECKLEY-CARDY COMPANY CHICAGO GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION LB3015 MONROE C. GUTMAN LIBRARY, .85 Dec. 5, 1923 COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PREFACE THIS book aims at a systematic and orderly presentation of the morning or opening exercise in the elementary school. Material is provided for every day of the school year, beginning with the first day in September and ending with the last day in June. There are as many exercises as there are days in the month, thus leaving the teacher free to a choice of lesson each day. If she feels that the psychological moment has arrived to consider a certain topic with her school she need not necessarily follow the subject outlined for that particular day. It is the author's belief that the time has come for a more earnest consideration of moral training and that the teaching of morals can usually be accomplished more effectively through an indirect method than by set lessons or formal teaching. Character is largely a matter of habit and too great emphasis cannot be placed upon the early training in right attitude and right conduct. The choice of subjects should be more or less incidental. When certain events occur in the life of the nation or society which have ethical value, or when the birthdays of famous poets or statesmen or those of national heroes revive the memory of their virtues, the topic of the lesson is naturally determined thereby. Through concrete examples presented in story and verse the children learn to appreciate and admire nobility of character and deed and their best aspirations are thus aroused. But it is better to allow the child to make his own inference than to force the moral upon him. The arrangement of this book, it is believed, will be found convenient and the plan novel. It is truly a day book for the teacher, correlating as it does, memory work, narrative, |