Middletown transcript., 1883-03-02

Reading Habit" is from THE CHOICE OF Books,
a very instructive little work by Charles +.
Richardson, published by John b. Alden, IL
| Nesey street, New York.
There are some persons who are so
fortunate as to be unable to tell when
they formed the habit of reading who
find it a constant and ever increasing
advantage and pleasure, their whole
lives long; and who will not lay it
down so long as they live. There are
men and women in the world whose
youth and whose old age are SO bound
up in the reading habit that, if ques-
toned as to its first inception and
probable end, they could only reply,
like Dimple-chin and Grizzled-face. in
Mr.. Stedman's pretty poem of Tou-
iours Amour - " Ask some younger
lass than [ - 4" Ask some older sage
than l. Happy are those whose early
surroundings thus permit them to form
the reading habit unconsciously; whose
parents and friends surround them with
good books and periodicals and whose
time is SO apportioned, in childhood
and youth, as to permit them to give a
fair share of it to reading, as well as to
study in school, on the one hand, and
physical labor, on the other. 1t is
plain that great duty and responsible
ity thus rests upon the parents and
guardians and teachers Of the young,
at the very outset. 1t is theirs to fur
nish the books, and to stimulate and
suggest, in every wise way, the best
methods of reading.
Just where, in this early formation
of the reading habit, absolute direction
should end and advice begin, is mat
ter which the individual parent or guar
dian must decide for himself, in large
measure. Perhaps there is greater
danger of too much direction than Of
too much suggestion. 1t is well to
give the young reader, in great part,
the privilege of forming his own plans
and making his own choice. Of this
promotion, self-development Herbert
Spencer says 6 In education the pro-
cess of self-development should be en-
couraged to the fullest extent. Chill
dren should be led to make their own
investigations, and to draw their own
differences. They should be told as lit
tie as possible, and induced to discover
as much as possible. Humanity has
progressed solely by self-instructiOn
and that to achieve the best results
each mind must progress somewhat
after the same fashion, is continually
proved by the marked success of self
made men. Those who have heen
brought up under the ordinary school
drill, and have carried away with them
the idea that education is practicable
only in that style, will think it hopeless
to make children their own teachers.
If, however, they will call to mind that |
the all-important knowledge of sur
rounding objects which child gets in
its early years is got without help, if
they will remember that the child is
self-taught in the use OF its mothers
tongue; if they will estimate the
amount of that experience of life, that
out-of-school wisdom which every boy
gathers for himself if they will mark
the unusual intelligence of the uncared
for London gamin, as shown in all di-
rections in which the faculties have
been tasked if, further, they will
think how many minds have struggled
up unaided, not only through the mys-
teries of our irrationally-planned cur
riculum, but through hosts of other
obstacles besides, they will find it a
not unreasonable conclusion, that if
the subjects be put before him in right
order and right form, any pupil of ordi-
nary capacity will surmount his sue
cessive difficulties with but little assist
ance. Who indeed can watch the
ceaseless observation and inquiry and
inference going on in child's mind, or
listen to its acute remarks on matters
within the range Oh its faculties, with
out perceiving that these powers which
it manifests, if brought to bear system
atically upon any studies within the
same range, would readily master them
without help? This need for perpetual
telling is the result of our stupidity,
not of the chiId's. We drag it away
from the facts in which it is interested,
and which it is actively assimilating of
itself; we put before it facts far too
complex for it to understand, and
therefore distasteful to it finding that
it will not voluntarily acquire these
facts, we thrust them into his mind by
force of threats and punishment; by
thus denying the knowledge it Graves,
and cramming it with knowledge it
cannot digest, we produce a morbid
state of its faculties, and consequent
disgust for knowledge in general and
when as a result partly of the stolid
we have brought on, and
partly of still continued unfitness in
its studies, the child can understand
without explanation, and be-
comes a mere passive recipient of our
instruction, we infer that education
must necessarily be carried on thus.
Having by our method induced help {
we straightway make the ]
helplessness a reason for our method" ]
After making all needed deductions ]
from the somewhat impatient spirit in {
which Mr.. Spencer here speaks, it can ]
hardly be questioned that the young {
most of these suggestions t
apply equally well to those who begin '
to read later in life-wilI do much for +
and that, on the whole, he 1
stands in greater need of judicious '
guide and helper than of a rigorous t