Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-02-12
Notes to young Teachers.

The subject of reading has come to
be sadly neglected IN many of our
schools, both public and private. This
ought not so to be for if there is any
one branch of school training that
should receive more attention than an
other, it is reading. Not TO be at least
a good reader is to render every other
acquisition comparatively worthless
1t matters little TO say that pupil is
a good arithmetician, if he cannot read
an example from his text book intel
ligibly, as is frequently the case. To
speak of being a grammarian. under
the like circumstances, is still more
absurd.
We are frequently upbraided by our
fathers and mothers with the assertion
that children are not now as good read
ers and spoilers as when they were of
school going age. This may be so
but Judging from the specimens that
have come down to US, there is some
reason for doubt. Other circumstances
being equal, that they had better
chance to become proficient in these
branches than We have, IS q fact
Twenty-Five, forty, fifty and more years
ago, spelling, reading and writing oc-
cupied at least nine-tenths Of the time
in school; arithmetic was studied but
to limited extent; grammar still less;
whilst geography, except occasionally
as reading exercise, was almost un-
known, and the many other subjects
that now find their way into our pub
lie schools, were entirely unheard of.
The state of affairs mentioned above,
accounts for another assertion, frequent
ly made by the pedagogues who have
come down to US from those by-gone
days. 1t is this: They used to teach
fifty, sixty and even seventy scholars,
and get round better than teachers
now do with twenty-five. The same
could be now done, if the work were
as simple. Keeping school would do
then, but now the person who would
succeed, must teach. But will enter no
farther into comparison. They un-
doubtedly did as well as the circum-
stances would admit, and if we do
equally well, many ofus will succeed
better, far better, than We now do.
The question is frequently asked
why our schools furnish so few good
readers. The reasons are various
Prominent among them is the fact that
far too little interest is taken in the
subject of teachers themselves. If the
records of our teachers examinations
could be laid before the public, the re-
suits would exhibit as much incompe-
tency in this branch as is generally
to prevail In others. The
examples are numerous N which the
sense of the passages real is perverted,
and often rendered as Ridiculous as the
'.hsrd shell" minister's question
Moses was an oyster man, and made |
ointment for the shins of the people"
Embarrassment may be pleaded as
an excuse for such mistakes. True, |
much allowance should be made, espe- |
cisily for young applicants; for the or
deal is, or should be, severe one.-l
But too much should not be imputed |
to embarrassment. Every experienced |
teacher knows that Ea<nY young men
and women intending soon to teach,
decline entering the reading classes in |
our Academies and high schools, SIM |
ply because they are ashamed to reveal |
their ignorance in this branch. Such I
precsution, however, only tends to
make the difficulty more apparent. |
They are continually making redieu-
Ions blunders in other classes. Allow
me to present few instances just in |
point. A young man was called upon |
10 snalyze the sentence, america was
in the reign of Ferdinand
Ind Isabella" His rendering was "in |
he region of Ferdinand and Isabella"
BE teaeAea the next winter. Another
the word elnlbcTsr, cucumber,
n the passage, "useless and vain a
,umberer here" Still another rem
iered, ga rattan is a long, slender reed,"
! rattan is long, slappy weed"
II. U. JOHNSON.
Normal Institute, Orwell, Ohio.