Thursday, August 19, 2010

1911 article about Summer School of Science, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada


Interesting article in the magazine The Young Idea, a Magazine of Character Study, Questions of the Hour, Field Work in Botany, Birds and Insects, published by Allen Company at Melrose, Massachusetts, May 1911.

Transcription: [strange in a couple places]

SUMMER SCHOOL OF SCIENCE
AT FREDERICTON, N. B. CANADA.

If you start from Boston and intend taking in the Summer School of Science as part of your vacation trip, you will do well to correspond with the Eastern steamship Co., Foster wharf, Boston, Mass.  They will give you rates to St. John.  You can take a sail on the St. John river (the Rhine of America), and you will arrive in Fredericton ready for the program below:

This school was established for the purpose of affording teachers and the opportunity of combining the study of some specialty with the rest and recreation of a delightful and inexpensive outing.  Work and recreation are combined in a most attractive way; the mornings are given to lectures, the afternoons to field work and laboratory work, and the evenings to lectures and discussions, to which the public are invited.

In the laboratory the field work of the School improved methods of teaching are exemplified by the very best teachers.  The excursions, public lectures, etc., give the teachers a rare opportunity of becoming acquainted with the resources of the Maritime Provinces, as well as with some of the most prominent men and women.  The delightful and sympathetic companionship of congenial minds and the large amount of outdoor exercise in collecting plants, insects, minerals, shells, etc., combine to make attendance at the Summer School the most recreative of holiday trips, while it is at the same time one of the least expensive.  It increases the usefulness of teachers by enabling them to direct attentive to those scientific subjects which to a large extent lie at the foundation of the material prosperity of the Atlantic Provinces of Canada.

There are three classes of subjects taught - Physical sciences, embracing physics, chemistry, geology and mineralogy; biological sciences, including botany, zoology, physiology and entomology; miscellaneous, including literature, agriculture, drawing and manual training.

Additional courses will be provided in music, elocution, French, German, psychology and child study. 

Registration, which entitles students to attend all except advanced classes, $2.50.

Each class in advanced course, $2.00

Board in private families can be procured for from $4.00 to $5.00 a week, and in hotels for from $5.00 to $6.00 a week.  All applications for board must be sent to the Local Secretary, Mr. T. B. Kidner, Fredericton, N.B., not later than June 15th.

Reduced rates of travel will be arranged for on all railroad and steamship lines.  All must be careful to procure a "Standard Certificate" from the ticket agent when purchasing their tickets.  These certificates, when countersigned by the Secretary of the school, entitle the holders to free or reduced return fares.  Further information regarding travelling arrangements will be published in the press from time to time.

"Duly licensed teachers, who shall have taken the course prescribed for School Gardening during two years at the Summer School of Science for the Maritime Provinces, and who shall have obtained a certificate of competency therefrom, shall be eligible to receive the grant allowed for School Gardening.  The course of study in this subject given by the Summer School of Science is to be approved by the Board of Education."

The course in Manual Training will consist chiefly of the various forms of educational handwork suitable for small schools; for the lower and middle grades of town and city schools.  Particular attention will be paid to work which can be carried on in the ordinary classroom, with very little apparatus or equipment.

Outlines of course are as follows:
Paper folding, free cutting and elementary pattern design in colored papers.
Constructive work in heavy paper, fancy and plain cardboard, etc.
Elementary bookbinding and portfolio construction.
Cardboard modelling, involving the study, development and construction of the type solids used in the teaching of drawing.
Raffia and basketry work.
Plasticine modelling.
Work in thin wood.
The following should be provided by each student:
A pair of scissors, H H pencil, ruler, compass and pair of triangles.  The rest will be provided by the school.

I found a reference online where this summer school program was organized by Alexander H. MacKay, who was described as one of Canada's "foremost Educationists and Scientists".

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