San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-10-21

OBJECT LESSONS.
Training the Minds of the Young by En-
PERTAINING the Eye.

lilhSb CliSOuiliNL
Many of us could have given our ex-
perence of our first day in school, as the
little girl did, who, when asked what
she had done in school, said, Obi Just
sat on the bench all day and said "A"
That is all changed now, and for the
better solme people think. Many a
mother who desires to help her child
get her lessons" AT home Is not little
puzzled when. after try-Vg to help her
little one by the old fashioned H. b, C
teaching, the child says, But, mamma.
that's not the way my teacher does.
What is 1t that the teacher does? She
lets the a, b, Cs severely alone at first,
and leads the children to talk with her
about the games played in the school
room, the taOleauX of child life, the
playing with dishes or paying visits, or
playing mother and plants, which chill
dren know or can be taught. This is con-
timed for at least SIX weeks, to acGuaint
the children with the use of words. the
spoken forms of words, such as singular,
plural and possesslve, and with the
proper combination Of words in SEN
fences
The children are trained to make pref
ty curves III the air, using the large
movements of the arm. then the fore
arm, then the hand and last the fingers
holding a pencil IN the fingers, which
are at first awkward and unruly mem
bers. 1t dOeSn require Il shrewd guess
to know that this anticipates writing
for in the new teaching writing is the
twin of reading
One fine day IL bird, perhaps, is brought
to the school. The children talk about
it with the teacher On the blackboard
are drawn pictures Of birds. When the
interest is at its best glow the teacher
writes the word bird" which she calls
another picture of the bird and she
writes birds" on the picture for more
than one bird The children put the real
bird under the word bird, find the words
bird and birds everywhere on the board,
scatter them by eraslng the words and
so, by many devices, learn the words so
that no child in the class will ever for
get them. After that the little ones trace
and write the word
Similarly score of other words are
taught from conversation, writing and
recognition. They are repeated and re-
peated, for every teacher Of little chill
dren knows AgaSslZ maxim that ''repeti-
ton is the secret OF permanent teaching
If bird, big and bell are among the
score of words taught, they are uttered
slowly or sounded, the like sound is dis
covered by the little ones, the words are
written and the like letters similarly dis
covered. The children get their first
lesson in logic when they infer that the
letter "b'' always makes that sound when
1t speaks All the consonants of our I'M
stable English alphabet are thus gradu-
ally taught, not before reading, but after
simple grammatical talking, reading and
writing.
With thoroughly taught small vo-
cabulary to begin with, and. with mas
terry Of The ""usonautS. the child soOns
learns - S,'.!l ,.ud read at sight, though
the best sprIImg is taught at the end of
a lead pencil.
NOl - ILLS an. as SOOll dS al (llllt CdU
write little sentence he has spoken, he
writes IT, This Is his first composition.
In time, and in Il short time, toe. he can
write us good reading as be finds on the
blackboard. cards or pages of reading
books. Perhaps Il kitten Is nroUGut to
the schooiruom. The cnI.GGeA are Its
furry skin, Its softly padded feet and
learn their use.
They write their little story about
them, and III many reading books find
other interesting things about Miss
Pussy. The secret of the new teaching
of reading Is not only naturalness and
interest. the unconscious training in
uniting words and ideas. but it is in
teaching that books contain what we
wish to know more Of, both about the
things we see around us and those which
belong elsewhere. Ladies Home Jour
DnI