Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-06-20
Free schools of Nashville
No. u.

not tsralfy. but ten hours, for teaching the
mechanical part of reading. With what
mingled feelings Of delight aud oyerwhelm-
ing establishment will teachers, pupils, and
parents, welcome the glad tiding Of great
joy to the whole earth, for it with mode of
writing equally easy, which Photography
affords) would be worth countless millions to
the Missionary cause, to American commerce,
American influence, and American eiviiiza-
ton, and to the cause of humanity. Surely
nothing since the message of love, "peace on
earth and good will to man" was proclaimed
from the Mount Of Olives, has ever equaled
this discovery. 1t must be the first step in the
fulfllment of that glorious but unthoughtOf
prophecy, "Then will turn unto the people
pure language. that they may call upon
the name of the Lord, to worship him with
one consent These Phonetic books would
be the books of the Missionary and millions
of Heathens, would in a few days, learn to
read them, from self interest and would un-
consciously to themselves become Missiona-
ries. Let the Japanese Embassy carry this
home with them, and it will be worth more
to America than all the treaties that can be
made.
Citizens of Nashville. 1 ask you seriously
and thoroughly to investigate this subject in
dividually for yourselves. and weigh well the
testimony which 1 give from other parts of
the country. Think of the tedious years of
toll and drudgery heretofore required to learn
4 =, To ~
hours" Why then has not the Board adopted
this without aweek, nay days delay? Nay
why was it not adopted at the first opening
of the Free Schools of this city? For this is
not thing of to-day. 1t has been known
and used in the native State of the Superin-
tendent ten or fifteen years. The Legisla'
ture of that State in 1851 and 1852 appoint
ed committees of its ablest men to test it. i
shall give their own testimony on the subject.
l shall show that it is now and has been used
there for more than ten years.
/ have been told that Phonetic reading is
taught in the Free Schools of this city. l
deny it, Gnequivocally, and defy the Board
and Superintendent to name through The pa
pers of tomorrow. a single department., a
single room, or even single class in the in
are and have been the text books of the
class. Parents, ask of your children, ask
them to show you text book in Phonetic
print.
1t has frequently been said that l am on
sandy ground, and that the sands are wash
ing from beneath my feet. 1 deny it; and
defy those who say so, 10 show it over their
own signatures in print. There we can meet
on equal terms and the public can judge.
The following is from the Revd. THOMAS
HILL, so long and we'll known in Massachu-
sets as an able advocate of Education, and is
now President of Antioch College, Ohio, an
institution where Phonetic rading and Phon-
ography, are permanent fixtures:
phonetic printing is attractive and inter-
est ng to the majority of childr.n, and they
learn to read it without any cOmpulsion. II
furnishes the names for q very perfect drill
in articulation. The whole course of read
ing is drill in pronunciation and enuncia-
ton; in other systems teachers can drill the
pupil, but in this neither teacher nor pupil
can avoid the drill. each word being spelled
precisely as it is to be pronounced, nothing
but the grossest neglect ON the teasher part
can allow any faulty pronunciation to go
uncorrected. Nothing can SO surely take the
foreign accent out OF the speech OF the Gull
dren.
A child who reads the phonetic print we'll,
can, in a few hours, learn, even without in
struction. to read common print. The tran
saction can be made at any time by simply
giving the phonetic scholar an interesting
story, such as one of the Rollo books, in
common type.
repeat, then, my assertion, found upon
five years constant usage of the phonetic
mode of teaching, both in my private ex-
periments, and in the Public Schools of
Waltham that it is vastly superior to the
ordinary mode of teaching children to read"
Req. Thomas HILL Chairman of the School
Board Of Wdhhans, Mass, an an address delaUer-
ed in 1856, at Mansfield, before the Ohio Teach
ers' Association.
In 1851, the Legislature of Massachusetts,
appointed joint committee to examine the
results of Phonetic teaching in Boston.
In their report (see Senate documents No.
1881 They say that there was evidence to
show
81. That it will enable the learner to read
phonetcally in one-tenth Of the time ordinarily
employed.
ss2. That it will enable the learner to read
the common type in one-tenth of the time
necessary according to the usual mode of
instructng-
So That the truth and accuracy of the
system will enable millions to teach them
selves to read, who are now ignorant, &C.,
81. That it will present the missionary
with superior alphabet for the representa-
ton ofhitherto unwritten languages"
Would there be any saving in this mode
of teaching? Would the saving of nine
tenths of the time of the pupil aad nine
tenths Of the expense for teachers, &c, &c,
be an object worthy the attention of the peo-
pie of Nashville; or have the Board and SUI
perintendent adopted the most economical
plan? But it is far mere important to avoid
weakening the intellect by an absurd mode
of teaching, than it is to save nine teDths of
the expense.
Another Committee, consisting of G. B.
Emerson, Charles Sumner, Edwin n Knox
and Amasa Walker, was appointed by the
Legislature of the same State. In thsir re-
port they say, 1.-THE exhibition was very IL
teresting, as tending to show that the whole
art of reading and spelling, whose acqui-
sition now consumes yeers of painful study,
might be reduced to the learning the sound
congentionally attached to forty characters
They cannot disguise the conviction that the
system presents claims of no ordinary char
friends of learning, of popular education, and
of humanity Impressed with the impor-
lance of the Phonetic system, which, il pri-
marily learned. according to the testimony
produced, would save tsro years to each OF
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