Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-28
GOOD READERS.
WHY THERE ARE so FEW OF THEM IN
AND OUT OF SCHOOL.

An Interesting Paper Read by Miss
Annie c. Weeks Before the
Late Teacher Institute.
To locate disease makes possible acure:
to acknowledge weakness may lead to the
growth of strength; a cry for help may
enable others to offer assistance without
fear of offense. Believing this. desire to
call attention to what seems to me weak
| ness in our work, and hope that many
among you will be able to offer the help
full suggestions which we so much need.
We are not here as Primary, or Gram
mar, or Ungraded, or High School teach
ers, jealous of every other department. and
each eager to protest that any fault in our
system of education must lie somewhere
else than at the door of his own school
Sometimes wish that through all the slow
progression from kindergarten to Uniyers-
ity neither teacher nor child might ever be
conscious of any more decided change than
that indicated when to our pupils we
should say: I'VE have taught you all we
can this year. Another guide will help you
to advance through the year to come. APP
ply what you have learned. Be eager to
gain new knowledge"
The Kindergarten teacher takes the child
from his mothers arms, and to some ex-
tent we ale all responsible for bis welfare,
until the University professor bids farewell
to the man who leaves the college walls.
AS we all alike share the responsibility,
so am sure that ell alike we are eager 10
do our part in fashioning that best gift that
man Or woman can place in the out
stretched hands of a grateful country-an
intelligent, loyal citizen.
DEFECT IN THE FOUNDATION
Means weakness throughout the whole
edifce; a failure to provide necessary
means makes impossible satisfactory re-
suits; and it seems to me a serious matter
if we must Ia. truth acknowledge that the
children who have passed through seven or
eight years of school life cannot read; and
if they cannot read, does not every avenue
that should temptingly invite them to
enter and explore the walled city of learn
ing thrust in their disappointed faces the
hopeless notice. mo Thoroughfare''
In saying that they cannot read, intend
to assert that they can neither grasp for
their own use the meaning of fairly simple
English, nor can they read it aloud so that
its meaning may be conveyed to their
listeners. Many claim that the first failure
includes the second; and, on the other
hand, that q child who thoroughly compre-
hends what is printed for him will natur-
ally be good oral reader; but ex-
perience shows that, like many other
- ,rk
ed by facts. Intelligent silent read
ing and satisfactory reading aloud are tne
soul and the body Of the art. In Euman
life we sometimes find body Of perfect
grace and symmetry, where me indwelling
soul is of too minute proportions to war
rant consideration while a soul beautiful
enough to soar on angel wings mag
be hidden IN body dwarfed and de-
formed, and hideous. So have heard
selection rendered with so distinct an artic-
ulation, and so sweet a voice, while it was
accompanied by such graceful gestures
that the hearers perceived far deeper
meaning than the intellect of the reader
possessed the power to comprehend
and l have known pupils whose rapid
glance would take the living heart from
the printed page, and make it quicken
the current of their own intellectual life,
and yet who in reading aloud would
stumble, and hesitate, and mispronounce,
until listening and agony became syn
onymous terms. Pupils of IA or 10 or 10
years of age should read intelligently
and with what might be called
GOOD MECHANICAL EXECUTION.
Do they fulfill either requirement. Ex-
pertinent and see. Ask them to read aloud
any selection of no greater difficulty than
the accomplishment of their school work
necessitates placing in their hands; but let
it be something with which you ere not
already familiar. Then see how many of
the class will read so that you can under
stand even the words they are endeavoring
to pronounce. See if such matters as
rhetorical pauses, meditation and ex-
preston are not brought to mind only
because there is an aching void where they
should exist. Try the experiment in any
grade from the eighth 10 the first, and
fear that you will find nay statement is a
true one.
Place before them a simple poem, con-
tanning no more 6gurative language than
enters into ordinary speech, and having
very few unfamiliar words; tell them, or
allow them, to find for themselves the
meaning of any terms that puzzle them;
and then bid them express the ideas in
Orally, this exercise can be given in any
grade, with the reading matter appropriate
thereto; but to enable you to fully realize
the dismal lack of comprehension on the
part Of large proportion of your pupils. a
written version will be most effective. Do
you say that this refers more to compo-
sition than to reading? l think not, for
have in mind now, not the proper con-
struction of sentences nor the rules of
rhetoric, nor such matters as punctuation
or capita]izing, but
THE SIMPLEST RENDITION
OF what the child has attempted to read ;
and the youngest child, no matter how
limited his vocabulary, can tell what he
knows-not smoothly, perhaps, hut intelli-
gently. He comes to grief only when he
tries TO tell something that is meaningless
to him.
week or two ago l placed before the
children of my own class pupils of the
average sge of 15) a little poem which
seemed appropriate to the season. II was
simply expressed, and the pupils were given
time 10 read and ipwardiy digest it,"
After season of meditation, they were re.
quired to reproduce the selection in their
own words. will read you the poem, one
written by Margaret Sangster, snd then try
to give you some idea of the result. The
poem is called
THANKSGIVING AT THE OLD HOME.
On the western slope OF the sun-lit hill
The wee brown house is clinging;
last years nest that is lone and still,
Though it erst was filed with singing.
When feet were the children's patteriDg feet.
And their thrilling childish laughter
And their merry voices were sweet, oh, sweet,
Ringing from floor to ratter.
The beautiful darlings, one by one,
From the nests safe shelter flying,
Went forth in the sheen of the mornings sun,
Their huttering pinions trying;
But oft as the reaping time is DER,
And the hoar-frost crisps the stubble,
They haste TO the little home once more
From the great worlds care and trouble
And the mother herself is at the pane,
With hand the dim eyes shading;
And the flush of girlhood tints again
The cheek that is thin and fading;
For her boys and girls are coming home,
The mothers kiss the guerdon,
As they came ere yet they had learned to roam,
Or had bowed to the task and burden.
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