The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-08-04

The census enumerators found In the
common schools, two years ago, close
upon 10000, 900 pupils. In the high
schools there may have been million
more. Let it be granted as no fault of
the schools that-as school officers tell
us-the lower half of this vast number
are too young or have been too little at
school to have learned to read more than
a hundred or two of the simplest En-
lish words. How about the upper half?
How many of them know, or are likely
ever to know, how to read-that is, to
read to good purpose
AS a rough estimate, based upon lit
tie practical kno Wedge of the instruction
given in our schools and its results, we
should say not one-half, including col
lege graduates, as well as the graduates
of lower schools. In truth, it is the ex-
ception when q student learns how to
read in school. AS a rule, the schools
do not teach reading in any strict sense
of the term, even when they spend much
time in formally drilling their pupils to
call off with more or less evolutionary
effect the words of printed exercise.
We have known those who might win
prizes for that sort of display who yet
had but the vaguest idea of the essen
tails of the art of reading. Indeed, their
notion of reading is much like that of
the young man who protested that he
could not see why some people called
Euclid "hard reading" He had read
whole book at sitting, and without the
slightest difficulty. That reading i'm
piled understanding had never occurred
to him.
The browning defect OF the instruc-
ton in reading given in schools could
not be more forcibly illustrated. To
recognize the words at sight as words is
the grand object, and when this has
been accomplished it is taken for grant
ed there is no more to be done. The
usual matter of the reading exercises
makes the delusion easier. At best the
selections are purely literary, employing
literary vocabulary, and allowing a
wide range of vague comprehension to
pass for understanding. When one who
has been taught to read in this way (and
the majority are) essays to read matter
requiring clearness and precision of
thought, or an exact understanding OF
facts or principles, he is all at sea. He
thinks he knows how to read, but he
does not. He may be able to call off the
words with the utmost readiness, but
there is no real reading, for there is no
full and clear understanding. The I'M
schooled mechanic, who has ploddingly
read for specific information upon sub
jects he has wanted to master, seeking
for knowledge he needed to use, may
mispronounce half the words, and yet be
the better reader, for he will not be con-
tent with empty sounds. To him read
ing is q means TO an end, not an end III
itself.
We have sometimes thought that If
our common schools should aim first of
all and all the time simply to teach pu-
pills to read, the public benefit would be
greater than is obtained under the more
ambitious system which now prevails.
Such teaching would be useful SO far as
it went, and it would go further for all
practical purposes, education or other
wise, than the delusiye smattering of
many things which the majority of pu-
pills row get, for it would necessitate
systematic building up of comprehen-
sive vocabulary, every word of which
would have to be effectively taught and
ieo
should be as fully comprehended as the
pupils age and capacity might make
possible, and also constant practice in
the recognition of known truths and in
the acquisition OF exact knowledge in
and from print.
If all children were thus taught to
read a death blow would be struck to the
production of what forms the bulk of the
popular literature of the present time,
for its markets would be spoiled at the
same time the level of popular intelli-
gence would be materially raised, and
something like revolution wrought in
social, industrial and political affairs by
exacter habits of popular thinking and
speaking. Half the mistakes, misun-
derstandings and conflicts which spoil
the peace of society arise from the ina
bility of most people to give or follow
exact directions, written or spoken.
Strictly speaking, the average reader
does not know how to read.-Scienti,ic
american.