Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1836-11-23
THE TELEGRAPH.
BRANDON, WEDNESDAY, NOV, %.


ishing our remarks on the subject of
teaching the alphabet. One or two more
ideas on this point now, and let it pass.
-Aitwho have taught after the old man.
ner have found it very difficult to learn
The scholar to distinguish d p and O.
This is the necessary result Of leaving one
Of these letters before it is fully learnt, and
proceeding to another. The evil is a Sc
rious one We have known children, at.
ter having been in school half dozen
seasons, to puzzle, stumble and guess at
these letters. A perfect remedy for this
evil will be found in undertaking one let,
ter--Ons thing a . dime.
Doubtless those who have been accus-
toned to the ancient usage will at first be
impatient At the seeming slow process Of
limiting the child's first lesson to one or
two letters. q Bat this slOU process is the
fast one, after all. Let those who doubt
make the experiment it will cost but
trife. 1.-THE result is not the turning a
dali, dry, dreaded task into delightful en-
ployment, both on the part of the learner
oand the learned. then set US down utopian
Bear in mind, that had habits are form.
ed only to be broken up, or to be perse-
vered in and endured, to the injury ofthe
individual and society We do not now
think OF a stronger or more striking H.
Illustration Of this truth than the case of the
child that is made to be years learning the
alphabet work that may be accom-
plshed in lew days. tits easier to break,
and render docile, kind and true, a wild
colt that never felt the Bit or rein, than one
that has been half broken and made tickle
and vicious by unskilful hands. So in lear
ming the child. We rather take one that
has never opened book or seen a letter,
than the one that has month after month
and term sRer term been made to 60 the
routine Of calling over a column of IN
meaning characters, many Of which he
cannot vet distinguish out Of the alphabet
ical arrangement, and none Of which he
knows theuse,
SPELLING. Great importance has al
ways been, as always ought to be, attach
cd to the art of speling but the general
course pursued in teaching it has, in our
estimation, been bad. Not less time has
been wasted in this, than in learning the
alphabet. The same recital Of sounds
without sense, has strengthened and con.
frmed the same pernicious habits. What,
ever there is Of mental effort called out is
wasted for want Of reaching the under
standing. What possible idea can bt
conveyed to the understanding or even the
imagination Of the child from spelling
b-a ba, be be, b-i biz Let those who hac
sagachy enough to gain any meaning
from this lesson, describe that meaning
And so ofthe labor spent on nine tenths o
the words arranged for spelling lessons il
the old spelling books. Not 1.-THE Q
these words have been understood b,
those who have studied upon them wee
after week end year after year. Any a
tempts to understand them, in the dscon
nection in which they have stood. ha
been as fruitless as efforts Of the eye I
penetrate q stone wal. Indeed there hs
been very little effort Of the kind An
how could more have been expected:
The defect in the system is radical.
does not teach the learner 10 think, b
yond the exercise Of the memory on Il
arrangement ofth unintelligible chara
tiers. The er ror consists in first makir
spelling principal business, to the ne
lsct Of reading and the application
words to the conveying of ileas. T
spelling will come along as an incident
matter. And ifh would not, let the mes
ing Of words first be learned and tn
their photography. 1t must be so, and
90, to q great extent, after all the waste
time and brains in the old method; for
most extensive tables in the largest sp,
ing book contain but a very small port
Ofthc English language. So tba, sp'
ing Is, and always has been, in a gr
measure. learnt incidentally. while
learner has been at the same time aca,
ing the art Of reading and treasuring
intelligence.