The Forrest City times., 1890-03-22
NEWSPAPER EDUCATION.
A REGULAR COURSE OF READING
 WITH EXAMINATIONS.
Practical Demonstration of the Value of
 Newspaper Reading.

AS Coptes Oi tuie may Cunt bcloTt tuosc uiiaequainted with the author, we deem it proper to say that Prof. Workman Is instruct or in literature, rhetoric and composition in the Ohio Normal University of this city, and has himself filled an editorial chair. The 0. N. U. Is q school for the masses, and last year had an enrolment of 2,I43 different students during tine year.
 Being resolved to discover for my self what edueative power there is in newspaper reading, l tried all the plans of which l could think. Some times l would read great deal. at other times I would read little. Sometimes would use great care in the selection of papers and of articles, at other times l would read indiscrim- inatcly. Sometimes l would read parcrs exclusively, then books like wise, more frequently combining tho two. After number of years of re- peated experiments 1 had concluded that newspaper reading has a place in education. Yet I was continually met with the idea that newspapers arc teachers of disjointed thought and that newspaper reading has no place in the s;udis of the student.
 To verify the conclusion at which l had arrived struck upon the follow ing plan:
 Twcmv-five women and men of diff ferent degrees of advancement entered the so-called newspaper class. Some Lad taken the common branches only. while others had completed many of the higher branches. Some were reg ular newspaper readers, others had never made q practice of reading at all. Some had been common school teachers. some farmers, some clerks, while others had followed various pur- suits. In fact, in almost every condi- ton save that of age, which ran from i5 to 30, they fairly represented the people to whom newspapers are ad- dressed. About dozen of the best papers of the Uniicd States and less than half the number of the leading magazines were subscribed for.
 read all the articles and marked those which desired the class to read. The articles marked, in my judgment, were the best in the publications. In no week were more than dozen arti- cles given to tho class. These they read at the college reading room, dur ing one-half hour each week day. The following rules were posted In the reading room near list of the articles to be read:
 i. Make use of note books.
 2. Mike constant use of books of re- ference.
 |. Beware os the habit of desultory reading.
 |. Always distinguish between state. meat of facts and the expression of an opin- ion; between project. or plan, and the un- folding of a principle,
 .. fflt be intended as a statement of facts. consider whether they he true. hiassed, or false. If 1t be tho expression of an opinion. is it your opinions If not. why not; II ii be plan, or project, Is 1t good one' If not. why notf If it he the unfolding of princa pie, is the principle well grounded:
 {. While reading ask yourself whether the ideas or thoughts be new To yoi--that Is. whether you have had these ideas before.
 Upon Saturday of each week the class met one hour for recitation. Ten or twenty questions, drawn by myself from their reading, were placed upon the board and students individually called upon to answer.
 At the ( ose of ten weeks written examination, consisting of questions selected by the editor of the Ada Rec ord. who had seen nothing but list of questions discussed during the term, was passed by the class.
 The experimen, has been repeated a number of times. Let few of the results or conclusions be briefly stated {:
 l. Horace Greeley was absolutely correct W hen he asserted before Par lament committee in l. ndon that newspaper reading creates an interest in pupils studies. Lessons of his- tory. political ecopomy, literature, have no repulsive presence and no nn- intelligible meaning to one who would read aright the journals of the day. l know this to be true, for many of my newspaper pupils were pupils in my regular classes.
 ,. By newspaper reading the stu dent becomes familiar with the living thinkers and actors. He singles them out for what they say and what they do. He does not, like many, wake up when reading history years after to find that certain historic persons lived in his time. He comcs within the in- tlncnce of their magic touch, and John Bright, for example, Is not name, but personality, charged with spirit nal forces as Leyden jar is with cleo tricity. This fact goes far to make tho newspaper the only true history of the country.
 Present history is there; he student who does not read'past history as the interpreter of the present reads histor / 10 little parposc.
 |. The student by newspaper read ing becomes familiar win open or un- sett cd questions. His lessons are about settled questions. By these his mind is nurturcd, informed and disci- plned. But his life work, his inilu- euce, is to be in the line of unsettled questions. For instance, in American politics manhood suffrage is settled question, while how best to keep that suffrage pure is an unsettled one. The former right is established in his books, the latter is discovered only by study of the times. To the public spirited young man or woman who hopes to in- iluencc the ideas of his age periodical literature becomes a necessity.
 These and similar conclusions I be- lieve have verified by these expcri- ments. Charles H. Workman.