Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-12-02
Common Schools.

Sdtiouhi uldCuihCiJi " % P'NfNA ~ 1890
to particular branches of study. Their
are some things to be said about reading
how il is and how it should be taught
Three things at least are necessary t
make good reader; good articulation q
sounds, right emphasis of words, AM
suitable closing of sentences. 1t is NJ
small requirement to be able to articulat'
sounds clearly and accurately. The hui
man voice and ear need training in orde
to do this, as much as the band need
training to be able to write a word clear
ly with a pen. And as much as the
sounds OF language exceed the number
of letters, so does the labor of learning
and giving the sounds properly, exceed
the labor of making letters with PEN
The number of sounds in our language i:
about double that of the letters. Accor.
ding to Webster, who condenses them
to the minimum, this is so. Other au-
thorities make the sounds treble the let
tiers, or more. Now the vocal organs
have no natural aptness TO utter these
sounds, more than the fingers have &c
write the letters. They have rot as
much, for every teacher Of music will tes-
tify that it is more difficult to bring the
voice to utter sounds rightly, than it is>to
teach the hand to make good mark
1t is supposed, to be sure, that the child
begins to learn the sounds as soon as be
tries to talk, so that he has more time to
train his voice. But little reflection
will show that not much is gained in this
way. 1t is more difficult TO unlearn a
wrong than to learn two right ones.--
And short look at The way our words
are mutlated in common conversation
will make it clear that what child or a
man learns of right articulation by every
day talk, is too full Of errors for much of
truth to be learned or saved out Of it,
There is large class Of words ending inI
ed, such as boosted, educated, that are
pronounced boast'd, educated.
Another large class ending in 'ent, such
as government, argument, are universally
almost, pronounced government, argu-
muat, or if not 'munt, the sound is Of.
mint or mont, or simply init Another
large class have the first or middle sylla
Dles left out or enormously spoken, such
as Liberty, called H6ety or HJty, govern
nent pronounced gov. munt. Words that
ire mutilated in this way could be men
Toned till they should embrace large
hare, perhaps one half the words Of ev-
ryday life. Now the grand difficulty is
lot that the wrong enunciation OF these
words becomes habit difficult 10 remem-
,er and correct, when we know better,
ut the vocal organs actually grow Stub
'orn SO that they refuse to utter these
ounds correctly. Let any man Try to
correct himself on some one Of these err
'oneous or sighted sounds, and he may
De able to make the sound as he knows
t should be, but when he puts it in with
he other sounds to speak the word where
It belongs, he will find stiffness and
awkwardncss abort his organs of speech
that makes the sound unnatural and
forced, This will draw attention to bis
efforts, and make him seem Affected
And man of good sense and fine feeling
will rather not talk at all, than be accu
sed of this. Let him practice on these,
to him, difficult sounds, alone, and it will
require ten times the amount of labor to
correct them, that it would to have learn
ed them rightly at first. So most men
will settle down to talk as others do, and,
what is worse, wish to have others con.
tinue as they have been in this respect,
since it is the easiest way all round
Hence we may sec what is the fact in
the case, that common conversation
among all classes Of society, regret to
say, is no help TO a child, but rather a
positive hiuderance to learning a correct
enunciation Of articulate sounds. The
extent TO which this is true may be seen
from the ridiculous spelling seen in the
reports Of laughable speeches made By
the ignorant Not half the words will BE-
spelled correctly. And the more nearly
the spelling represents the utterance Of
the words accurately, the worse the SPELL
ing becomes. But this" it is said, sis
the talk of the ignorant" So much the
worse, for they cannot correct themselves,
and they have learned to speak words
just as they understand the better educa
Ted to speak them. This is almost always
true of foreigners, who mangle our words
most. Let an educated foreigner, who
had not learned our language from books
at oil, be gifted with the knowledge of