The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-05-02
[From the Educational Weekly.
THE OLD AND THE NEW. III
SUPT. III. r. ETARRINeToE, NEW Bed
FORD, 1IAsS.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

j HAVE narrated the circumstance
4 under which the oId-time primar,
schools performed their work. come
now to describe the work itself.
READING SPELLING. How was reading
/ taught? The faculties through Whiei
nature first develops the mental pow
! ers are the perceptions. Therefore il
teaching little children, the primar,
agencies Of instruction, as far as posi-
BILE, should be UiStbze things. Their in
telligence is to be appealed to, system
atically, through the senses. The
concrete object must precede it's alb
stract symbol, the q0ord; and not stel
should be taken without associatinE
sound with sense,
But what was the practice? The frs
step was to force the alphabet into tht
scholars head through unintelligenr
and interminable iteration; the next tt
instruct them to combine the letters il
/ words, and spell and pronounce those
words, with the names Of the letters
Ialone for guides.
Who does not Instantly appreciate
that this course is arbitrary and IRA.
tional? Who does not see that since
the names of the letters are not always
Suggestive of their sounds, the use OF
the names in spelling and pronouncing
must prove a hindrance rather than a
help? Yet on and on, day after day
and year after year, that arbitrary
process was the only avenue through
which, blindly and YEARLY, the schol-
arS of primary schools were introduced
to the symbols Of thought.
When the next stage of progress had
been reached-the use of a textbook
one single book at q time, first the
Primer, then in succession, the First
Reader, and the Second Reader, com
pri8ed the whole ground trayerSed in
the exercise Of reading for several
months. The contents Of The books
were doled out in daily portions, as
tasks, and long before either book had
been finished in this piecemeala way,
everything interesting in its pages had
been culled, and its words had become
the dryest Of dry bones. Nothing more
was furnished or indeed allowed,
though SO much of the school time
was passed in absolute idleness.
Among the defects of the old-time
schools, this starYeling limitation Of
the reading matter is the most aston
ishing Its stupidity amounts to infatu-
alton. rr
NUMBERS. The same unphilosoph~
zeal method by which the study of Ian
guage was begun characterized the in
Istruction in numbers. The little be-
ginnerS We're taught the significant fig
ures by name and symbol, with little
or no Illustration through objects, and
had to blundor along I'M most inst stances,
until intelligence of the relations Of
numbers to each other and to material
things daWned on them out Of their
mother wit. aa
Thus it came about that the school
room, which should qb9 one Of the
most delightful places in the world
Ito little children, was o dreary scene
.0f daily recurring naartyrdom.
THE NEW SYSTEM.
What is2d the reformed primary
school? How complete the change!
The arbitrary old-time methods have
been succeeded by those which are true
to nature; the perceptions are made
the primary vehicles of intelligence,
and objective realities an Indispensable
agency in connection with every sub
j9ct Of Instruction Moreover, that
gross outrage is. forbidden which con-
dennis little children to sit still with
nothing to do, while the recitations are
50 brief as not to produce undue IA
tigue, and the intervals between them
are occupied with various exercises. iu-
diclously alternated, which profit while
they please. Thus in place of the te-
diouS rote work and idleness Of the old
system, we have the minds Of the little
ones agloW with elastic and Joyous in
terest, busy with the resources gather
ed about them, and delighted with the
conscious activity Of capacity and DOW
Gr.
READING AND SPELLING. The good
primary teacher begins her instruc-
lions in language with aOoydS, not let
terS, because the child begins its Wse of
language with words, and has acquired
quite q vocabulary of them before the
notion Of such thing as a letter has
entered it's head; and the eye will Just
as readily take in word as a whole
it OF one syllable only as it will sim
gle letter. The unit or starting point
of language, indisputably, is the word
and not the letter; especially as the
names Of the letters express only por-
tlon or their power or sounds
The best proof of the correctness of
this method is its success. At the pc
Rod when the little ones, by the old
method, We're drilling on alb alb. e-b eb,
they have acquired the knowledge oil
quite list Of words by the new. and
perhaps are reading sentences in the
Primer. | cannot delay to detail the
various instrumentalities by which this
instruction is accomplished. Objects.
pictures, word cards, charts. black
board, states, are all brought into req
uisition in such intelligent and engag-
ing ways, that work seems to the chill.
dren to be play 88ef Fn
Whom OF