Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-10-22
The Ar. OF Reading Aloud.

OF all knowledge and mental training,
however, reading is in our day the principal
means, and reading aloud intelligently the
unmistakable, if not the only, sign. Yet this,
which was so common when the present gen
Grafton of mature men were boys, is Just
what our highly and scientifically educational
educators seem either most incapable or
most neglectful of teaching. And yet the
means by which children were made intelli-
gent and ineligible readers 50 or 40 years
ago were not so recondite as to be beyond at
tainment and use by a teacher of moderate
abilities and requirement who set himself
earnestly to his work. As l remember it,
this was the way in which we were taught to
read with pleasure TO ourselves and with at
least satisfaction to our hearers. Boys of not
more than TO years old were exercised in
defining words from an abridged dictionary.
The word was spelled and the definition Civ
en- from memory, and then the teacher asked
questions which tested the pupils compre-
hension of the definition that he had given,
and the members of the class, never more
than a dozen or II in number, were encour-
aged to give in their own language their no.
ton of the word and to distinguish it from So
called synonyms As to the amount of knowl-
edge that was thus gained, il was very little
little at least, in comparison with the value
of this exercise as education, that is, of men
tai training, which was very great. The
same class read aloud every day, and the
books that they read were of sufficient inter
est 10 tempt boys to read them of themselves.
The class was called up before the teacher,
and ranged itself dressed" as the soldiers
say,-in line. At a signal they all bowed to-
gether profound bow, and if this was done
awkwardly by the class as whole, or by any
individual, the process was repeated, and in
structon was given by the teacher with ex-
ample. No bobbing of heads was allowed,
no awkward position of the arms and hands,
or of the legs and feet. was passed over un-
noticed. decorous bow from boy to his
master or his elder was a matter of the minor
morals When the reading began all the
class were obliged to follow the reader, each
in his own book for any pupil was liable TO
be called upon to take up the recitation, even
at an unfinished sentence, and go on with it
and if he hesitated in such a manner as show
ed that his eye and mind were not with the
readers, the effect upon his mark account
was the same AS if he himself had failed in
reading. If the reading of any sentence did
not show a just apprehension of its meaning,
the reader was stopped and the sentence was
passed through the class for better express
ion of its sense. Whether this was obtained
from the pupils or not, the teacher then ex-
planned the sense or gave some information,
the want of which had caused the failure,
and by repetition of both readings-the bad
and the good-showed by contrast and by
comment why the one was bad and why the
other good. Words were explained; if they
were compound words they were analysed !;
the different shades of meaning which words
have in different connections were remarked
upon, and the subject of the essay, the mar
ration, or the poem which formed the lesson
for the day was explained The delivery of
the voice was attended to not in any pre-
tentious, artificial elooutionary way, but
with such regard for good and pleasant speech
as was dictated by common sense and good
breeding. The young readers were not al
lowed to hang their heads either over their
bosoms or over their shoulders but were
made TO stand up straight, throw back their
shoulders, lift their heads well up, 80 that if
their eyes were taken from their books they
would look man straight in the face. Only
in this position can the voice be well deliver
ed. The slightest mispronunciRtion was, of
course, observed and corrected, and not only