Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1899 — The School Work Exhibit. [ARTICLE]

The School Work Exhibit.

Something of a new feature in our town was the school exhibit, to which the patrons of the schools were inijited Wednesday between the hours of 1:30 to 4p. m. The teachers had been to endless trouble in arranging all the various forms of school work, for the convenience of the guests, and eadh teacher received her visitors, and gave them cordial welcome. Beginning at the first grades and going up a step at a time, the progress of the scholar was splendidly illustrated. In the lowest grades the print like writing, and almost perfect spelling, the plain accurate numbers, the lovely and geometrically correct leaf forms, cut out of paper and pasted on, the drawings of landscapes and figures from nature, natural and pretty in many instances, were only repeated, as you pass along the grades to the higher rooms. In some cases you would note a drawing of a figure the position and motion as natural as seen in the pictures of artists of note, the more wonderful because done by a six year old perhaps. The walls of all the exhibiting rooms were fairly covered with work of all kinds, supplemented and ornamented once in a while, by drawings from the masterly hands of the teachers. One especially noticed was the allegorical one, of the months by candles. Three of them were burned out, one smoking yet, and “May” in full blaze of splendor. Each candle was set on a picture emblematic of the month. This was in Mrs. Kaub’s room. The teachers and superintendent deserve all credit and praise for their tiresome labors, just when the finishing of school is especially hard, and from the eagerness of the children to have all their friends there, to see, the effect can not help but do much to promote their application in the future.