Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-06-04
From the Nashville Banner.
 AN ESSAY

AN ESSAY, Read before the Literary Contention, at Nashuale
 April, 1881, by Nathaniel Cross.-L CONCLUDED
 Domestic SgStem.-This name has been given to system explained and recommended in the 9th No of series of Essays Public Schools, in the Nash vile Republican 1 shall permit the writer to illus trate his theory in his words. Alter remarking, what is very obvious, that the population of Tennes is so thinly scattered over large surface, that convenient distribution or location of schools cannot be made among us, as in the eastern and middle states, where the people reside in villages, or Tn cus ters upon small farms adjacent to each other, and consequently that some other mode Of meeting the demand, besides the ordinary school, must be devs ed the auther proceeds:
 "The first and most important acquisition which child makes next to that of artculate speech, IS the of reading; the second in importance, is wr ting; and the third, is the knowledge of figures or common arithmetic It is certainly desirable that all youth of both sexes should be instructed in these three useful arts at least. But, in case, ought child to be suffered to grow up amongst without being taught to read. Can this be done without schools 2 believe it may Ifin every family there be one individual who read that individual could, without serious interruption or detrment to any dnary occupation teach all the other members ofsad family old and young, to read also lf in every settlement or vlclnage, consisting of a dozen or twenty individuals, there be one who can read that one could teach all the others in like read. Let voluntary associations or classes, from six to twenty (the members for instance, of one family or of several contiguous fames,) be formed, and let them agree to meet once or twice, for one or two hours, as their numbers or convenience may suggest to learn to read. Sunday is universally day of lei especially with the ignorant: andasits usually spent in ideness folly, there could be obi eo.nn on the score of conscientious scruples among those who habituay profane it, to the devoting the whole part of it to this object. Here then would be abundant leisure for the purpose contempated.- Were such classes or companies to meet regularly on Sundays alone to be taught to read by any com petent instructor of their own number they would not only be less culpably employed than they com mony are that day, but they would all become readers in the course of few months and certain ly in less than year. Those who should object to any such use of the Sabbath, could easily find other time sufficient for the purpose Let none infer from the above remarks, that mean to commend or to countenance any desecraton of the Christian Sab bath 1 mean such thing. But fthe two evils 1 am always willing to choose the least.'
 In order to learn to read it is not necessary to commence with the alphbet, or to go thro' a course of spelling. Adults have been recently taught to read in penltentares and elsewhere, in very short perlod-even within one or two weeks, in some cases who previously did not know q letter. The chap lain or teacher opens his Bble-drects the eye of his pupil to the first verse of the first chaptsr-reads it dlstnctly-points out each scord to the learner, and makes him repeat it-and so on to the end of the verse. In a few minutes, the pupil can read the verse backwards or forwards. He now knows the ,oords, by their appearance in the book. Here, perhaps the teacher stops awhile, and analyses d word naming each letter-and presently the pupil can distinguish and name the letters also They then proceed to another verse, and to another-and by and by, the division of words into sylables-(or thesyllabc analysis may precede the alphabetically and thus the whole mystery of learning to read is dspeled, and it becomes an affair of few days or hours"
 "I taught one of my children to read in this man. ner Ii. without spelling at all long before ever heard of NJ. JacOtot-by whom the method has been announced to the world a grand discovery: and constitutes the first step in the process of his nge- nious and greatly admired system of instruction"
 Now the only means, by which the public can be indaced to embrace this system Is, to convince them of its importance and practicabitty, and doubt not the learned author will cheerfully concede much of the honor of it, to the individual or individuals who by agitang the subject, and by making the experi- ment in small districts, shall succeed in creating this general conviction. Much might also be done in ex- tending the system, by introducing into the state, and disseminating cheap and suitable books some. what on the plan of the American Bible Society
 Having given this general description of the above system, come to the last division of the sub- ect, and begin with the Infant Schools. Early edu- cation is universally acknowledged to be matter of the deepest importance but what is the earliest practical period, at which education should begin is not so generally agreed upon. It may be proper ten to state tha: it has been fully and satisfactorily shewn, in Infant Schools, that children may be taught great variety ofmportant lessons and truths at the age of eighteen months or to speak safely as soon as they walk and enuncate distinctly The general principle is, so to simplify the lessons by means of pictures and models, presented to the eye as to make them easily ineligible; and so to vary them as to fatigue the attention or wea- " the mind. The practice, then, it will he readily seen admits of almost infinite variety Referring the f,r I,t tn tfo Tnfa S,b al' by Mir Howard-to the "System of Infant Schools by William Wilson; to Bacon's Infant School Teachers Guide," and to the report made yesterday on the subject will only notice, for the sake ofillustraon, the methods by which the art of reading is taught. The children divided into classes caled one, two three and four letter class es. Cards with one letter each, thrown pro- miscuously a table, and, the children in the first class standing by the monitor teacher points with a pointer to letter and names it; he, then, gives the pointer to another chd who also points to the same letter and names it; and on with each child and each letter. In the second class, the cards have two letters in the third three, &c. and the process is similar to the above; only in addition to naming the letters, they now taught to pronounce them. They have now reading lessons, consisting of short easy sentences, also printed written cards and taught to spell the words well their mean- ing and use Asecona method of teaching to read is to exhibit to the class, vowel in different sizes and places, until it becomes perfectly familiar; exhibit, in the same manner, consonant, and 'then put the two together read them show them it is a word, let them read and spell after you; tell them that words made by putting letters together, &c." By teaching the following words, with the same care they will have acquired knowledge of all the let ters in the alphabet with their use, viz: Pa, do go in. H is anon. Wc go byh. So hc is up. Can he kill me. Fire. Blaze Jump Run. QmN.-Qnfant School Man.) A third method, which is highly re- commended is that described above under the Do- mestic System, and is there sad to be part of the Jacototian System. Nothing but experiment per haps, can determine which of these modes is prefe