This is one from the SIT recommended reading list. Published in 1963 by a white teacher in New Zealand, it describes her lifelong work in the classroom with Maori children and those of British descent.

Most inspiring to me are her passion for teaching and her ability to accept cultural differences without judgment. That is, till the second half of the book when she turns into Mr. Hyde, chastising the kids, shaming and spanking them. Oh well.

When she’s not angry at the kids, she espouses the need for truth, creativity and relevance in language instruction: not See Tom Run, but stories that reflect the lives of the learners, in all their unvarnished reality.

The writing is hard to follow, particularly in the Hydian half of the book, as though written while she was trying to wake up from a dream.

I like her idea of language and writing being “captions of the pictures within.”

Excerpts

I like the moving currents of children’s interests. Draw the poplars straight after a walk and count them and number them. Then drop the subject for the next… We don’t waste enough in school. We hoard our old ideas on charts to be used again and again like stale bread. Ideas are never the same again… there’s never a shortage of ideas if the stimulus is there.”

The Golden Section is the ideal proportion. It is the division of a distance in such a way that the shorter part is to the longer part as the longer part is to the whole. It’s one of the laws governing plant life… and it can be drawn easily and every day. The diminishing span between twigs on a branch as it tapers to its tip. Or on a fern. Ferns make wonderful counting boards…