American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1867-03-06

.ssEaeno Bono.,s

paper, TO make few remarks upon an
article, Dir. School, under the caption eff
"Cui Bono" gave your readers on the Goth
inst. know not pho he is CT sshes he
is; but judging from his article he must
be one of those who 'expect to be heard
for their much speaking"
1 am truly sorry Mr.. s., you were SO
rash in forming poor opinion of me as
an educator; and so hasty in declaring it
to the public He, who is propense to
eensoripus judging of others, gives them
great cause to suspect, that he is himself
devoid. Hence, Mr.. s., "Judge not that
ye be not Judged. For with what Judge.
inent ye judge, We shall be judged. -
Condemn not, and ye shall be not con
demned"
Before you concluded the first sentence
of your article, you boldly asserted, that
| was ignorant, and did not understand
"the nature of the human mind, its wants.
its powers and capacities, and the meth
DDS by which it may be expanded and
exalted, through the spbliming effects
of instruction" I presume, sir, that if
experience and observation are of anv
consequence, | am not as ignorant of it
as you suppose. No. am l as slow to
learn the future requirements, and wants
of the pupils, "as you have unnecessarily
judged. think, sir, that they require,
in the first place, good, and practical
knowledge of photography l. is essen
tai to good, and practical education
1t is the foundation of science and litera-
ture Without correct spelling, we can
not expect to have correct pronun.
citation. And is not correct pronunciation
one OF the essentials to correct reading?
Does not correct reading enable us to form
and express our thoughts correctly p
Ideas without eords to express them, are
of little consequence. Show me an indi>
vdual who is deficient in orthography,
and | will show you ope who has no taste
for reading. Hence unqualified to form,
or advance very useful ideas.
/ am we'll aware, that thought is the
essence of education and | am as anxious,
and labor as earnestly as any teacher can,
to ;'set the soul to thinking, and keep il
thinking Sometimes we spend half
hour on object lessons. Sometimes give
tham short lecture Cd some interesting
aubject. Sometimes one thing and some.
times another; anything that will inter-
est item.
1t is query to me, when and where
you learned to spell The words in your
article ? Did you learn them in your
spelling book, in your youthful days at
school ? or did you have Webster's Die.
tionary before you? If not, did you EN-
ploy some one to write yonr thoughts for
you? We presume you did one of the
two, as you are so much opposed to bav
ing the "mind cIogyed and 6urdeped with
10ords = and as words I'm st be iosl and
die in one short hour" after learned
You appear to have great sorrow fr
the "you,hful intelccts of this ancient
cultivated borough; but they have great
er sympathy for yon, because, they think
it must be worry ;ncoR renient for you to
he always carrying Webster's Unabridged
Dictionary with you, that you may be
able to pen your thoughts correctly, or
to get some one to DO it for you.
You appear to think that learning
'oor1s sis hurtfuI aud injurious" Why
is it more injurious than memorizing ge>
ography lessons? have been teaching
for ni3e years, apd have the first one
yet to see, that has been thus injured
but quite the contrary. have found,
that they make greater progress in their
other studies, aud wish less labor, than
those who neglect the spelling book
When they rite letter. or an essay,
every word is spelled correctly This ls
more than many of our graduates" or
would be professors can do.
l have seen letters that we're written
by professors Of respectable institutions,
in which, one third of the words were in.
correctly spelled l was lately informed
of Young man, that lost the situation as
principal of au academy on account Of
incorrect spelling. Hence, | cannot see
how the "golden moments are pasted,"
learning "words" in the spelling book
correctly. Words learned correctly ip
youth, though they may not know the
Of them now, will prove benef-
cial 10 after life. IT'S pity that SO
many of our educators pay SO little atten,
ton to spelling.
You seem very fearful that the pupils
will have ia disgust for study. apd reppg>
nance to school," because they are re-
4uired to study the spelling book. 1t i,
the least of my fears. ] have always OBJ
L.