Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-05-18

Seuuy suC Mc8ux0S OF W0f0Ss aHsz
A common mistake mada hy our teach
ers consists in allowing pupils to pass
over so many words without learning
their meaning. Children sometimes
boast their ahifityseo smell through the
'.blue back, 4, ma yet when uuestioned
as to the meaning 81 these words. thew
not only profess their Ignorance, but
seem q litue surprised at such, q de-
mand. Why do we learn to spell? just
for the physical exercise (for we admit
it is an excellent lung training as COM
monty taught) or IN order to use the
words thus learned If the latter, how
can we use thing when we are ignor-
ant of its uses? Children should take a
utilitarian view of this matter, remember
ing that words, like most. other possess
sions, SHOULD be acquired for the sake of
the benefit to be derived from them.
Pupils, by knowing the meaning Of
words, can remember their photography
better. The word suggests the idea,
and the idea the word.
This same deficiency is found in read
ing as well as spelling. To read is not
simply to utter the words in piece
with their proper order and pronuncia-
ton. IL that we're true, then children
could be taught to read Latin as soon as
English. When pupils spell or read
words that convey to their minds no
idea, these subjects grow tiresome, and
the interest is to some extent impaired.
Imagine your reading, or hearing read
to you, extracts from some foreign
tongue for several hours in the day.
Can children then be so interested in
that of which they have very little idea ?
If the object of reading be, as some
one has said, to ssbring out the sense"
of the piece read, could not pupils do so
more intelligently by knowing what the
''sense" WASP Pupils who read intelli-
gently, other things being equal, will be-
come better readers than those who do
not; and so poor spelling might be-
ameliorated by encouraging pupils to
spell knowingly.
Some have a mistaken idea that long
words are hard ones, and therefore un-
fit for children. But not so. A child
has as vivid an idea of the words rhi-
noceros, grandmother, and Elizabeth,
as of hare, aunt, or Guy. The difficult
ness of WORD, with child, lies in the
obscurity of the idea it conveys. We
admit some words are too hard for the
Schild's mind to comprehend, and we are
not in favor of introducing such words
too soon and too freely. Some words
we use we do not fully understand our
selves. But. if such words must be
learned, will not partial light as to
their meaning be better than total dark
ness?
To sum up, the advantages to be- de
rived from study of the meaning Of
the words are the following x
1. It causes more intelligent and cor
rect reading.
2. 1t helps to make better spoilers.
8. 1t creates interest.
4. 1t encourages the investigating
principle-an important step in gaining
an education. r
We give below the views of an emil
nent teacher: :
ssThere is, doubtless, to-day more
time spent in trying to learn to read and
spell than there.is devoted to all other
branches in common schools.
"Hpupils could understand the mean
ing of the words they use, words would
then become to them ideas. Words
should be considered simply as signs of
ideas, and ideas should be had first, and
the words afterward. Then pupils could
comprehend the word, and the idea
suggesting it. The familiar object
clock or horse, boot or hat-does not
require special thought to suggest the
name. The thing imparts the idea, and
the name then comes easily.
ave learn to spell thousands of
words, and the words are as abstract
and meaningless as the names of the
Chinese people are to us. We remem-
Der when the word ichthyology was a
poser for spelling, and do not know
how many years elapsed after l mas
tered the spelling of the word with GER
tainty before 1 learned its meaning.
The word phthisic, and a few more of
those meaningful, words without any
meaning, were test words, but the
meaning of them was never vouchsafed.
We had in Webster's spelling book few
pages of words which had definition of
their meaning, commencing, Gail, to be
troubled; Ale, malt liquor" and it was
to the pupils the most interesting lesson
in the book. Thus pupils spend the
best part of their life in learning to spell
words, in great part, without learning
their meaning, and though our method
of spelling in English is crooked and
difficult to the last degree, and unfor-
tunately without any law or analogy,
even the English language could be
mastered if all the words that could be
represented by symbol could have
such symbol related to the word itself.
If there could be fish connected with
the word ichthyology, and that was I'M
derstood to mean the science of fishes,
there would be some sense in learning
to spell it. We would like to see class
of pupils trained to spell the names of
articles when presented, the name being
pronounced, and then let the pupil spell
it by sound only, without having learned
the letters. ''-Kintterqarten.