Every boy and girl in America ought to go to school. The public school
is one of the best institutions connected with the life of our nation.
But did you ever hear of a little girl who went to school to herself? I
have, and I want to tell you about it.
We will call her Tootsie.
There was no school-house, and no teachers; nothing only just little
Tootsie; not even her dolls; just simply Tootsie sitting all alone on
the couch near the window. That was all there was to this little school,
so far as anybody could see.
But Tootsie said she had a large school, with some sixty pupils.
Sometimes she would say that her scholars had been naughty and that they
would have to stay in at recess; and then again she would say that they
had been promoted to a higher grade; she often talked to her pupils as
if they were real live people, telling them how they should stand and
how they should sit and giving them permission to be excused, and so on.
So you see it seemed in Tootsie’s mind very much more like a real school
than it could to us.
[Illustration: TOOTSIE!]
Every morning, when Tootsie’s sister would start for school, Tootsie
would watch her until she was out of sight, and then she would go and
sit down on the couch. Not having a true-true school book, she would
take her Christmas story books. At first she would only look at the
pictures and try to think what the story about them must be. Then she
would ask mamma or grandma, or whoever happened to be nearest, what the
words of the picture-story were. She would then say the words of the
story over to herself and look at the picture. Next day she would read
over the words of the same story as far as she could remember them, and
when she came to a word that she did not know, up she would jump and go
and ask some one what it was. When she had learned a story herself, she
would then talk to her sixty imaginary scholars about it, showing them
the picture and explaining the story to them just as though the children
were all there before her in her little school room.
In this way Tootsie went through one after another of her story books,
picking out the stories that had pleasing pictures.
But the nice thing of it all was that Tootsie was really learning to
read, and she did get so that she read real well; for she knew just what
she was reading about, and often, when she would find a story that was
funny, she would laugh right out even if she was at school, and then she
would find mama or grandma and read the funny part to them.
Maybe one reason why Tootsie learned so fast was because her school was
just like play to her and not like work. Of course, it is easier to play
than it is to work. But could you think of any better thing to play than
to play keeping school? Why not try it? It helped Tootsie wonderfully,
and I believe it would help many other boys and girls. What do you think
about it?