The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-01-17
TEACHING READING.
Written for the Democratic Advocate,
BY PROF. CHAS. T. WRIGHT.

1t has been 50 long since the appearance
of our first article upon this subject that
those who read it have probably forgotten
the line of thought pursued. The ideas
we're merely Introductory in their nature,
and dwelt principally upon the Importance
of correct expression even in children, the
ability of children to emphasize, infect,
modulate, &c. hence the importance of
training them to do So
The whole ant of reading, either primary
or advanced, is, after all, a getting back, as
it were. to something from which we have
wandered, and that something is natural
ness. The tendency of every one is toward
arifciality, and in becoming artificial we
become awkward. Nature is graceful; art
that tries to initiate nature and fails is any
thing but grace When the child enters
school it begins to lay aside the easy, unaf-
fected manners of home, and assumes Il
manner not its own-not anybody's. In
reading it breads, when it should talk from
the book.
So long as so much effort on the part of
the young reader is required to pronounce
the individual words while reading SEN
fences, so long will it drawl, hesitate,
stumble and fail to give proper utterance
and meaning to the lesson under consider
alton. We are speaking, bear in mind, of
the learning of individual words, for here
the pupil must often pause and think be-
fore being able to pronounce the word be-
:. H. H.. In-it,tt.v, ,ln,.,
beauty of the sentence or the thought
hence here. and only here, should hesitation
be allowed When the sentence as whole
is to be uttered when the thought is to be
expressed and conveyed, then should the
voice pass from one word to another with
case, and with sufficient rapidity to do
away with all appearance of stumbling or
clumsy utterance. To accomplish this the
individual words should be taught first,
without reference to the sentence containing
them taught so that they may be rccOg-
nized and spoken anywhere they are seen.
When this has been done the child can be
taught to read the sentence as unit, as a
thought, with correct infection, emphasis
and expression, without danger of draw.
or of memorizing the sentence as a sentence,
knowing nothing of the separate words
composing it, Every teacher knows this
last fault to be an almost universal one
with young pupils if they are allowed to
hear their reading lessons read by the
teacher or by others before the words them
selves have been independently learned.
This is especially true when the lessons are
illustrated by pictures. Why suffer child
to become a drawler while learning to read?
Why follow method so plainly irrational,
and one that would be considered absurd
in almost any other application of means
to ends? Who thinks of waiting to learn
the individual words of poem, or the pro-
nunciatiOn of those words, until the moment
arrives to recite it? What declaimer or
public reader would not appear ridiculous
while stumbling over words whose pronun-
citation he ought to have known, and thor
oughly known, before coming to the ros-
trum The reading class is too often Il
misnomer, for there the pupils are more
frequently taught to pronounce than to
read. The time of the reading lesson
should be given TO the art of expression,
not to the mere art of pronunciation. If
necessary have a separate class, and call it
a pronouncing class, and let the time be
devoted to mastering the difficult words
promiscuously, and when the time comes
to read teach the class to do so with correct
rate, emphasis, PITCH infection, untram-
meled by mere pronunciation. To be more
explicit it may be necessary to say that
many teachers make the mistake of doing
two things together that ought to be done
separately, or, in other words, the teaching
of reading has two distinct features or de-
partments-the teaching of words and the
teaching of delivery, and the attempt to
teach both at the same time begets those
habits of hesitation and stammering and
droning so common in readers, both old and
young.
The method here suggested may appear
10 some waste of time, since it requires
the words to be learned out of their places,
and in the abstract, when they could be so
much more easily learned when used as
parts of sentences, because of their rela-
IionsfIip 60 other words. We believe that
words can be taught just as rapidly without
the sentence as with it by many expedients
which good teachers employ every day, but
admitting the fact that they can be taught
more rapidly by the use of the sentence or
entire reading lesson, We do not believe it
would be wise to do so, for the reasons
heretofore given. 1t is certainly no econ
omy of time to employ method that in
its application begets in the pupil habit
which years of after training will not coun-
teract That progress which often seems
the most rapid is too frequently the slowest
in the end, and here is case in which it is
far better and safer to make haste slowly"
At another time We may discuss the sub
ject more fully, and extend the discussion to
more advanced reading, but if for the pres
ent we have succeeded in calling the atten-
ton of our fellow teachers to the subject of
primary reading we shall be satisfied.
Western Nd College, jan, 1891.