Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-08-06
EDUCATIONAL.



Most teachers are simply hearers Of the rec
itation and not instructors. Nor do they al
ways hear well. Oftentimes their attention
is called by the pupils out of the recitation,
to other studies. We have seen teachers
busily engaged in ciphering while the class
was reading, and when the pupil came to a
standstill because he could not pronounce the
word, the teacher, warned by silence, would
say, "spell it," and after pronouncing the
word for the scholar the reading continued az
before. It has sometimes seemed to us,
when visiting schools, that the reading eIer-
else is often managed as the miller grinds his
grain. He pours the grain into the hopper,
sets tho mill to running, and lets the grain
run through while he attends to something
else When the grist is ground, he shuts the
gate as deliberately as the teacher dismisses
her class when they have run through to the
end of the lesson.
Ono step in advance of the method Of in
attention while the class is reading, is that
of the teacher who looks over simply to pro-
nounce words for the pupil whom he fails to
pronounce them himself. This is not always
well DONE especially by teachers who do not
study the difficult words in the lesson. The
following bad pronunciation of words by
teachers will serve as illustration Malignant
was called "mal-i-gant;" judicial 'ju.di-cal:"
| ignominious, "ig-nom-i-nus !" picturesque,
''pict-yursq ;" and encyclopedia "en-cy-
clop-e-dy-er. These are only few of the
many examples that might be given. As a
matter of courtesy, we omit to mention any
,,,.l,r g
of the reading classes in our schools this
summer have made more improvement than
usual. The primary classes make the least
progress in learning to reHd. 1t ought to be
the reverse. for the teachers have more time
to instruct such classes in summer than in
winter, when more and larger scholars are in
attendance. In every term Of school the
primary classes should receive their full share
of attention. The primary or first reader
class is usually called twice each half day
Early in the forenoon the class reads and,
near the close of the session, is called to spell
few words, generally without any books in
hand. The method is repeated in the after
noon. More time should be spent with these
classes, or the recitations should be more
frequent After all, it is not so much in time
spent as in the matter and kind of instruc-
tion. Many of our teachers know nothing,
or very little, about the word or the sentence
method of instruction. On inquiry, we find
that some teachers have not beard about the
word method. Ths old time penknife meth
cd is much used. The experience of many
years has taught our best educators that
judcious continuation of the word and
phonic methods is the best. Tho pupil learns
words as fast as he learns letters. At home
the child is taught by the parent first to say
words, not letters It would be very tedious
for a child to learn to talk if il were COM
PEELED TO learn first all the letters of a word
before speaking it, Why not continue the
word method at school that is begun at home
AS sample of the old pen-knife method, we
give the following style of reading which we
heard from the primer or first reader classes
recently. The selection is from Appleton's
first reader, lesson L. "T-ah, h.ah, e.ah, the
c-ah, a-ah, tab, cat. After reading round
twice in this manner, occupying some fifteen
minutes time, the class was excused, and no
questions were asked about the words in tho
lesson or the picture on the opposite page to
illustrate the same The pictures in school
books are designed for school use Nearly
every page of first readers and spoilers is il
Illustrated. Lessons may be taught from each
picture. Our fathers and mothers think
there is no recent school book SO good as
Websters old spelling book which they
studied. A copy of this book lies before us.
The monotony of its 1Gs pages is relieved by
only seven pictures but the stories which
these illustrated made them more interesting
to the pupil than other parts of the book.
The popular Colburn's arithmetic has not
one picture TO aid the pupil in his mathemat-
ical perpexities. The new text books are
quite different from those in use several years
ago, and are well adapted to the present
method of teaching Some parents are not
pleased with the new books selected by text
book committees last year. II the child's
progress is to be measured by the number of
pages gone over during the term, there may
not be a sufficient amount of reading matter
in each book TO give satisfaction but if the
child's progress is measured by his interest
and thoroughness in reading, then the new
books furnish all that is required in the hands
of n competent teacher AS SO much has
been said by parents in praise of old books
which they studied in the good old days of
long ago, when "a-b-ab's" were taught in
school, we make a few selections for COM
parison. In Webster's spelling book the
first lesson contains thirty words, only three
of which would ever DO used in speaking or
writing OF what use would it be for the
child TO learn "da, de, di, do, du, dy2" or
"kn, Ike, XII, ko, ku, ky?" The first lesson
in the New American Speller has sixteen
words, all in common use. From a book |
which We studied in childhood, we give the
following reading exercise 81 do so. So do
1. Ye do so. So do we." How will it COM
pare with lesson XII, in Appleton's First |
Reader about the hen and eggs, made still |
more interesting by a spirited picture? At
ter all that may be said the fault of little
progress in reading is not so much in the |
book as in the teacher. Now that we have |
spoken about books we will state that the
text book committee were not hasty in max
ing the selection of books to be used in the
schools for five years. Towns series of read
ers in the old and the new editions had been
used in our schools more than twenty years.
They were the books principally used but
five or six kinds were in use. Among the
several series of new books offered, Apple
toms readers seemed to the committee the
best suited to aid the teachers in drilling the
classes under their instruction. The Frank
lin readers had very good selection of read
ing exercises, but so many young and mex
perienced teachers are usually in charge of
the schools, that books with questions to aid
would be of service to them. Moreover,
gonna of the older and mara aVnariancad