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STATE OF MICHIGAN

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

To the Teachers of Michigan:

Lansing, February 1, 1911.

This book contains suggestive programs for the observance of special days and is published in the hope that it will help both teachers and pupils. Such exercises are, without doubt, a most helpful factor in school training. Teachers, however, should not make the mistake of too frequently interrupting the work of the school with formal exercises. Often the most beneficial results are obtained from correlating the work in language, reading, geography, history, and manual training around the thought of the day or season.

The work varies necessarily with grades and schools. For these reasons no arbitrary programs could be given for all schools. As far as conditions will allow the dramatization of stories in connection with the reading or language lessons will be valuable work. The dramatizations are usually worked out by the pupils guided by the teacher. The memorizing of poems and quotations should be continued throughout the year. Many songs should be learned and care should be exercised in their selection.

The work should be such as will teach patriotism, the love of the good and the beautiful, and an appreciation of the best literature. "What a boy loves when he leaves school is worth more to him and the nation than what he knows."

The suggestions for Arbor and Bird Day are for the purpose of awakening an interest in nature study and furnishing information concerning the value of trees and birds. This study should lead to practical results. The work should be of an aesthetic, commercial, and utilitarian nature.

Many of the selections are taken from similar publications of other states and acknowledgement of such indebtedness is made. Grateful acknowledgment is made to publishing houses for the use of selections from their publications; to teachers of Ironwood and the Western State Normal for dramatizations; to Dr. W. J. Beal of Amherst, Mass., Will Carleton, the Michigan poet, Prof. W. B. Barrows, Prof. R. H. Pettit, and Prof. C. P. Halligan of Michigan Agricultural College for contri-butions; also to the Brown Picture Co., Beverly, Mass., the State Normal Schools, Michigan Agricultural College, and the Educational Publishing Co., for the use of plates. Credit is given the National Association of Audubon Societies for the use of colored bird plates. The cover was designed by Miss Emelia Goldsworthy of Kalamazoo.

Very truly yours,

L. L. WRIGHT, Superintendent of Public Instruction.

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LABOR DAY

FIRST MONDAY IN SEPTEMBER

MEMORY GEMS

No man is born into the world whose work

Is not born with him;

There is always work, and tools to work withal,

For those who will; and blessed be the horny hands of toil.

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Good cheer to help me bear the traveler's load,
And, for the hours of rest that come between,

And inward joy in all things heard and seen.

These are the sins I fain

Would have thee take away;

Malice and cold disdain,

Hot anger, sullen hate,

Scorn of the lowly, envy of the great.

And discontent that casts a shadow gray,

On all the brightness of the day.

-Henry van Dyke.

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MICHIGAN SPECIAL DAYS

Pass, therefore not today in vain,
For it will never come again.

-Omar Khayyam.

The worthiness of life depends upon the way in which the every-day duties are done. Theodore Roosevelt.

Nothing is gained without work.-French Proverb.

There is no work that is not honorable in the cause of humanity.

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The greatest genius God ever gave a man is the genius of hard work.

-Edward Olney.

Round swings the hammer of industry,
Quickly the sharp chisel rings,

And the heart of the toiler has throbbings
That stirs not the bosom of kings.

"Tis not the blood of kith or kin,

'Tis not the color of the skin;

'Tis the true heart that beats within
Which make the man a man and brother.

Toil, I repeat-toil either of the brain, or of the heart, or of the hand, is the only true manhood, the only true nobility.

Talk not to me of the stock whence you grew;
But show me your stock by what you can do.

-Spurgeon.

From labor health, from health contentment springs.-Beattie.

He who is honest is noble

Whatever his fortune or birth.

-Alice Cary.

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