Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-01-09

Every Thing exists III his WOrIQ either
IN the positive or comparative degree;
there is no superlative. One thing is
good. another is better, nothing is best.
There is actually some danger that
the teacher viii know too much. Bet
ter draw water from one clear living
spring than from a hundred shallow
ponds.
Any system which makes the promo
ton of children from grade to grade
during the first four or five years of
school life dependent upon a certain
per cent, as determined by written ex-
amlnations, is faulty in It's construction
and injurious in its results.
The city school in some things is
superior, but the well regulated coun-
try school has a freedom from owen
t~ionality, from red tape, from dead
routine, -an approach to the individu-
ality of the pupil, which the city schools
may initiate with great profit.
During the 18th century a few think
ing men changed the type of educa-
tional thought in the old world. ANY
attempt to transfer their ideas to our
times, unmodified by the conditions
of American life, must of necessity
prove a failure.
Child nature is only human nature in
its purest form. The teacher must
recognize this fact and act upon it.
Children must be treated as children.
1t is nothing against a boy that he
hates books and loves fun. If he is
wide awake and honest, his fun is per-
haps the best part of him. Get hold of
him on that side and you will have con-
troll of him; try him on the book side
alone and you drive him out of school,
or render his school useless.
Points on Reading.
Not every pupil can ever become a
skillful reader.
There is art in the expression of what
we know and feel.
The place to put in the best work is
in the beginnings of things.
Some pupils must have special, in
dividual instruction before they can
read well.
The aim in the reading lesson is first
for the pupil to get the thought clearly
in his own mind and then to make II
clear to others.
1t is possible to know a thing perfect
ly, appreciate it fully, feel it keenly, and
yet not know how others know it, APP,
preciate it, or feel it.
Good teaching of reading separates
entirely the getting of the thought
clearly in mind from the revelation of
that thought in vocal expression or oral
reading.
The secret of good expression is such
familiarity with the thought that the
sole concern is with the most vivid re-
violation of it through the language of
the author.
The teacher must give some special
training in the art of revealing what he
knows.of transmitting his appreciation,
and enkindling in others that which he
feels.
1t is the teachers place to see that
the pupil does know the authors
thought; that he is sufficiently interest
ed in it to appreciate it; that he abpre-
ciates it keenly enough to feel it him.
self.
There is no possible excuse for a
child to drawl, or hitch along, or have
an unnatural key in his reading. Mod
ern methods are now so simplified, in
such general use and so we'll written up
that it is easy for any one, trained or
unframed, to teach reading without
any of these unnatural mannerisms.
The first thing to do with a little
child in reading is to give him a writ
ten vocabulary. This is not to be a
new vocabulary; it is to contain no
word or phrase with which he is not
entirely familiar. 1t is to be a revela-
ton to him of the way in which he can
say from the blackboard just what he
has been saying of himself. This may
be easily and clearly supplemented by
a printed or book vocabulary. For a
long time there must be no sentence
read that has not been previously fully
comprehended by him. = Journal Of
Education.