Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-08-09
NO. 32.
The Use OF the Dictionary in schools.

The Use OF the Dictionary in SchooIs
Two books, at least should be owned by
every teacher, the Bible and an Unabridged
| Dictionary. 1t is to be presumed that no one
essays to teach without being the owner of
the former, and it ought to be equally true in
regard to the latter. It is perfect mine Of
information from which the teacher has oc-
casion to draw daily, and almost hourly.
Though there has been increased attention
! given to the use Of the dictionary in schools
during the last twenty years. we feel that it is
not yet used nearly as much as it ought to be-
| Tn all the schools Of our town we have copies
of UeJSter's UHdbridged DictiOHd5y for the
use of teachers and pupils, and they arc i'll
constant demand. Indeed, we should not
know how to get along without them.
A competent teacher may lead his pupils TO
| get invaluable lessons fr2m this book. Let
| the synonyms, to be found in late editions be
rightly used, and it will alone prove worth far
more than the cost of the book Pupils should
be early and carefully trained to discriminate
words which have similar shades of meaning,
without being precisely synonyms. or sever
al words of somewhat similar import, it will
be true that of the number, one is better
adapted for n particular place than either of
the others; and they will prove the most
expressive and forcible writers who harm to
use the fright word in The right place If
| Everett, Irving, and other eminent writers of
the past or present, we shall find that much
| of their power as writer's has been III their
rare skill in the choice of words We shall
| find that they have not only used good words
but we shall also find that we cannot subst-
tnte others as good. They have invariably
| taken the best.
Let teacher spend few minutes OCCASION
| ally in explaining the shades Of difference be-
tween words of Synonymous import, and the
result will he highly profitable. For example,
! let him take the words GdjdcCHt d3j0iHiHg.
c0RtjgUous. BY referring to Webster We shall
| find that, though there are resembances
| there are also shades of difference in the
| meaning Of these words Let us suppose a
scholars attention has been called to these
words and their shades of difference, and is
then called to write short sentences TO illus
trate their use. He may write as follows
The house was ddjdcent TO the railroad -
The mans farm was adj0iaiHg my fathers :"
'1he two fields were c0atigu0tS." Then by
interchanging the italicisod words, let little
| time be given to showing wherein one is bet
ter adapted to its particular place than either
of the other words would be.
We once Witnessed an exercise like Il is
An intelligent teacher stood at the blackboard
in front of his school, and asked his pupils to
name any words they could think Of that had
some shades of meaning similar to the word
| see. In less than two minutes lie had written
| the following words rs named by the pupils
| observe, look, behold, view, descry, spy,
| gaze stare, watch, notice, perceive, discern,
| examine, scrutinize, investigate, discover
| glance He then spent about fifteen minutes
| in getting at the true shade of each word.
| greatly to the interest and profit of his school,
He might, with a little more time, have ex-
tended the exercise, and given sentences, il
! listrating the right use of these words, and
| showing that they could not safely be taken
at random. Or, perhaps better way would
have been to require the members of the
| class, for future exercise and criticism to
write short sentences. in which these words
should be used Who cannot see what an in
terest might be awakened by a wide-awake
| teacher?
But this is only one of the hundred ways
| i'll which dictionary may be used. Lessons
| in the origin. or derivation of words their
pronunciation and accentuation, their syllabi-
cation, the meaning of phrases, etc, may all
be profitably considered and made of great
| interest
Teacher, have you an unabridged dictionary
in your school? If not, do not fail to procure
a copy and use it. Your own interest and
knowledge will be greatly increased thereby,
and you will greatly benefit your pupils by
showing them how TO use the book. After
receiving little instruction. child of ten
! years may be made to use the dictionary with
| delight and profit. We believe that every
pupil of ten and over should own a dictionary,
and that he should be encouraged and taught
to use it daily. For this purpose, of course
one of the smaller editions will be preferable.
| Again we say to teachers Use the diction-
ary."-C0r. Neic ERgJdtd journal Cf Educd-
! tOH