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Show A TWELVE-YEAR- OLDJUER CHILD In the "Interesting Pooplo" department depart-ment In the February American Magazine Mag-azine appears an artlclo about Winifred Wini-fred Sackvlllo Stoner, a little girl twolvo years old who Is already an accomplished scholar. Sbo speaks eight languages, and Is already an author. Sho can also throw a hall bettor than most boys. Her mother attributes her unusual development to nntural education which Is briefly described In tho following extract from tho artlclo: "Perhaps nothing Is moro Illuminative Illumin-ative than Mrs. Stonor's account of how sho taught tho child mathematics. mathemat-ics. Winifred had failed to get any sort ot grasp on tho subjett, she say;, until the mother was In despair fearing tho child's mind might bo lopsided. At a Chautauqua mooting in Now York, howover, tho mothor met Prof. A. H, Hornbrook, a woman wom-an mathematics teacher who soon put her on tho right track, "Prof. Hornbrook oxplalnod that Mrs. Stoner had been successful In teaching music, art, poetry, history, and languages becauso sbo horsolt loved thoso studios, nnd had failed to toach mathematics becauso sho had not brought tho fairy interest Into It. "Mothor and child then began play-ing play-ing gumes with small objects, such ns beans and buttons. Theso ob-Jotts ob-Jotts would bo placed in n box nnd they would toko turns drawing thorn out to seo which could got tho most nt a slnglo grab. When helping tho maid shell peas, thoy would try to seo how many peas thoro woro in tw0 or moro pods. In this way rudimentary rudi-mentary lessons In addition were taught. To mako greater progress they ployed pachlsl with small dlco und got practice from adding up tho spots, in learning subtraction thoy would havo battles with tin soldiers and marbles, and whenevor n cannon shot wou'd topplo over a glvon number num-ber ot soldiers, Winifred was able to decide how many were left standing stand-ing without stopping to covnt. "There novor wero any quizzes, ho-causo ho-causo Winifred was taught to sot ro-sults ro-sults and was not taught rules. Sho teamed tho values of money hy tho actual uso of coins and tho vnlues of runrkot products by going to markot herself. And so It went through the wholo subject, until at last tho girl! became fascinated with the funny do-1 lng8 of Mr. X nnd got Interested In algebra. Things sho could mako with ' cardboard nnd scissors gave her a start In to tho mysteries or geometry." |