The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-01-07
Reading in Home and School.
BY j. W. NEWTON.

BY j. W. NEWTON.
The reading habits of young people
are cause of anxiety to parents and
teachers. Some young folks read little
or almost none, some read that which
destroys intellectual and often moral
power, few read that which strength
ems and enriches the mind. 1t might
be reasonably questioned whether it
pays to eXpend so much money and
time in teaching children TO read, if so
much evil and so little good comes of
it. But it need not be said that what
is needed is not to do away with read
ing, but to find where our educational
systems are faulty and what is the rem
edy.
/ can not do better than to quote a
few of the utterances of thoughtful per-
sons on this subject. Says Charles
Dudley Warner, "What then, does the
common school usually do for literary
taste! Generally there is no thought
about it. If we examine the
reading-books from the lowest grade
to the highest, we shall find that their
object is to teach words, not literature.
The lower grade books are inane
beyond description.
The taste for reading good literature is
not developed; the habit of continuous
pursuit of subject, with compre-
hension of its relations, is not acquired,
and no conception is gained of the en-
tirety of literature or its importance to
human life. Consequently there is no
power of judgment or faculty of dis
elimination.
"Now this radical defect can be easily
remedied if the school authorities only
clearly apprehend one truth, and that is
that the minds of children of tender
age can be as readily interested, and
permanently interested, in good liter
ature as in the dreary feebleness of the
Juvenile reader. Now it hap
pens that children go on with this sort
of reading, and the ordinary text books
into the high school, and come to the
ages Of seventeen and eighteen without
the least conception of literature, or of
art, or of the continuity or the rela-
tons of history, do not know
whether Franklin was an Englishman
or an American; would be puzzled to
puzzled to say whether it was Ben
Franklin or Ben Johnson who invented
lightning; think it was Ben somebody;
can not tell whether they lived before
or after Christ, and indeed never have
thought whether anything happened
before the time of Christ. The
point | wish to make is that real liter
ature for the young, literature which is
almost absolutely neglected in the pub
lie schools, except in a scrappy way as
a reading exercise, is the best open
door to the development of the mind
and to knowledge of all sorts. \
Whatever the beginning is, it should
be the bet literature. The best is
none too good for the youngest child.
Simplicity, which commonly character
ICES greatness, is of course essential
But never was greater mistake made
than in thinking that youthful mind
needs watering with the slops Ordi-
narily fed to it. Even children in the
kind rgarten are eager for Whittier
Barefoot Boy and Longfellow's Hia-
watha. 1t requires, | repeat, little
more pains to create a good taste in
reading than a bad taste. "-At ldntic
Monthly, J1ne, 1890.
Horace E. Scudder says: "There is
plenty of vagrancy in reading The
public Libraries and cheap papers are
abundanty able to satisfy The truant
but it ought to be recognized, once fol
all, that the schools are to train the
mind into appreciation of literature
not to amuse it with idle diversion. TC
this end the simplest and most direct
method is to place before boys and girl.
for their regular task in reading moi
scraps from this and that author. duly
wisely.selected series of works by me1
whom their country honors and who
have made their country worth living
in. The continuous reading of elias
sic is in itself liberal education; the
fragmentary reading of commonplace
lessons in minor morals, such as make
up much of our reading-books
is pitiful waste of growing men
al powers. "-From Literature IL
Schools" IN Riverside Literature Series
These thoughts may be new to many
but are they not true? What a person
reads largely determines his character
and if in school he learns to love goot
books, acquires taste for the best lit
erature, he has made great acquisition
But | hear the reader say: "Of wha
use is it to talk thus to the people o
this state? Literature can not be in
troduced into our schools" | answer
There is no good reason why Vernon
should not have as good a school sys
tenn as any other state. But if thi'
ever comes about, it must come through
the intelligence and public spirit o
the people. Meanwhile there are man,
parents in the state who desire to do al
they can for their children and VIII,
wish to know the best ways of child
training. 1t is for such especially tina
| write.
ITO BE Concluded