The conveyer being of special interest, two boys worked out a larger model which illustrated the band-bucket process. This is shown in [Fig. 30], at the right of the mill. Small cups were made of soft tin and fastened to a leather strap. The strap was fastened around two rods, placed one above the other. The lower rod was turned by a crank fastened on the outside of the box. Two or three brads driven into the lower rod caught into holes in the strap and prevented slipping. The machine successfully hoisted grain from the lower box to one fastened higher up, but not shown in the picture. The model was very crude in its workmanship, but it showed the ability of fourth-grade boys to successfully apply an important principle in mechanics, and it gave opportunity for their ingenuity to express itself. The work was done with such tools and materials as the boys could provide for themselves, and without assistance other than encouraging suggestions from the teacher. This bit of construction accompanied a broad study of the subject of milling, including the source and character of the raw materials, the processes involved, the finished products and their value.
CHAPTER VI
THE VILLAGE STREET
Playing store is a game of universal interest. Making a play store is a fascinating occupation. These are factors which cannot be overlooked in any scheme of education which seeks to make use of the natural activities of children.
The downtown store stands to the children as the source of all good things which are to be bought with pennies. It is usually the first place outside the home with which they become familiar, and its processes are sure to be imitated in their play. In their play they not only repeat the processes of buying and selling, but try to reproduce in miniature what they regard as the essential features of the real store.
If they are allowed to play this fascinating game in school, it may, by the teacher's help, become at once more interesting and more worth while. Curiosity may be aroused through questions concerning what is in the store, where it came from, how it got there, what was done to make it usable, how it is measured, and what it is worth. In seeking answers to these questions, the fields of geography, history, and arithmetic may be explored as extensively as circumstances warrant and a whole curriculum is built up in a natural way. After such study, stores cease to be the source of the good things they offer for sale. The various kinds of merchandise take on a new interest when the purchaser knows something of their history, and a new value when he knows something of the labor which has gone into their manufacture.
