The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-01-27
nenalnr IN lhe pnblle sehooIs.


their end.
Reading In the Public Schools.
Six POPULAR TALEs Selected and arranged by
Henry Cabot Lodge. Boston: Lee shepafd
PoErRY poR CHILDREN. edited by Samuel Eliot
Superintendent Boston, Public Schools. Boston,
Lee & shepard.
The contrast between the ways chill
dren learn to read at home and in schools
| is both striking and instructive. In homes
OF intelligent and cultivated people,
where books are on every hand, where
"Mother Goose" and tMother Hubbard"
''The Giant.Killers, Cinderella Sock
Robin" and ''Red Riding-hood" are house
hold gods, the stories and rhymes are
read and repeated to the little ones; and
their ardent curiosity never ceases until
they can see what they have SO often
heard in these wonderful packages OF pic
lures and color. Thus many people never
know how and when they learned to read
They only know that 1t was all very easy
and very delightful. Children come
somehow to the feeling that there is some
thing very charming locked up in the
black and otherwise repulsive characters
and their industry is indefatigable to find
the keys. The child's desire overcomeE
the difficulties. Enchanting stories and
plenty OF them is the simple home method
OF learning TO read.
In school, the wfetched little primer,
thinner than ones little finger, with its
monosyllabic and phonetic nonsense oil
ave 60 up,""Do we 20 up?" and 1.-THE
bag Is on the nag" conned, thumbed, dog
cared, is wrestled with for one, and often
times for two,. whole years, and this tiny
morsel Of a book, that may be learned by
heart in three weeks at least, is crammed
| into the deienseless child for five or six
hours a day for 200 days-l,200 hours,
more or less. Let mother put her little
s wear old upon hard bench in the corner
one hour four times day for year, with
nothing but soulless primer to amuse 1t,
and see how soon an arrest would be made
on the score OF cruelty to children. Yet
at this moment millions OF children are
suffering this unmitigated cruelty in our
public schools.
Not long since a party OF Superinten-
dents visited the so-called chest school" in
one OF our great cities. In one room class
bright, intelligent children. were reading
OF very glibly from Third Readers. One Of
the party asked permission to conduct the
exercise. It was politely granted. "Close
your books, II you please, said he. Snow,
1 will read two or three words and you
may say the rest in concert" When the
eager little pupils caught the direction,
they entered into the new work with zest.
One book was opened in twenty different
places, at random, at the beginning, end,
t,or middle OF selection or paragraph. The
instant two or three words were read, of
galloped the merry crowd, perbatim Il htsr.
atm, into the remainder, until stopped
by new beginning, which they took up
as readily. The fact was indisputable that
they knew every word In the book by
heart, and still must repeat the stale stuff
six months longer. Staring at stone wall
for an hour per day would be positive
pleasure by the side OF such monotonous
repetitions. II may he well for taX-pay-
ers TO remember that they arc now paying
productive drudgery as this.
Another phase OF this subject may be
glanced at here. The words in readers
are rapidly memorized, and the thought,
when, indeed, there Is ineligible thought,
may accidentally come into the mind. But
the words are not repeated often enough
10 be known again in new sentences; a
multitude OF new words are taken up, and
soon the poor innocents are struggling
through desert OF unknown and un-
meaning words. The mind in times be-
comes so hardened and enfeebled. by the
Intellectual drudgery that all attempt at
grasping the thought Is given up-Greek,
Latin, or English, It Is all one to the read.
ers. The writer tested this matter with a
class who had been nine years in school,
For nine long years they had been wander
ing througha wilderness, without fountain
or mama. He selected the funniest story
that he could fiud, so amusing that child
rem at home greeted every paragraph with
shouts OF laughter. He kept his face
straight, and conducted the lesson as
though It were prayer meeting. Not
even smile frightened the faces OF that
class OF Is during the entire reading. The
solemnity was touching. Habit had closed
their eyes to all that lay beyond the mere
forms OF words.
In the great awakening now happily
begun, thoughtful teachers are struck with
horror at what they are doing, and are
earnestly crying for more and better read.
ing. Years ago Superintendent Harriug.
ton, OF New Bedford, Mass, a pioneer IN
educational reform, introduced new read.
ing aud new life into his schools. To-day
the demand for something more than one
book year ia loud and long. The FIRST
step in the ''new departure" Is to give
school children plenty OF good, whole.
some reading. Years ago at the dictates
OF Puritanical morality, fairy stories and
all the rich household treasures known
and priced ever since children were child.
rem, were banished from the New England
school room. They were not true; that
was reason enough. The weak, fabby,
namby.pamby, goody.goody tales, with a
staring impudent moral took the place OF
the delightful flights Of fancy that touch
Children's hearts like magic wands. That
greatest power In teaching children-the
imagination-was ruthlessly put aside,
and the futile attempt was made toI
confine the fancifnl and fancy free
mind OF the child TO stern realities. The
results, as every one knows, are an unsa-
tiated hunger In the school, and long
sweet, stolen interviews with highly seas.
onad nniahnni1s dime novala Vrha nHa.