Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-12-14

aTSe 10 enaOle Hlm 10 TeaQ VIII II
some degree of intelligence.
A child who does not know such
words as"which, ""what," ~''every,"
"could," ETC., the instant his eye
falls upon them has no business out
Of the second reader. But / have
known such children to be reading
in the fourth or fifth reader and
trying to study physiology and his
tory. 1t seems to me there must
be something wrong.
At the best, the country child's
school life is short, and IL would be
far better If he never did more than
complete the third reader and the
multiplication table, if he did that
well, than to do more work in a
slip-shod manner.
1t is a fact-and one to be lamen
Q d-that reading is often placed
very low IN the scale of Importance.
with the idea that children will
learn to read without much teach
ing, and if they learn to read at all
it is merely by accident. | think
it will be admitted by all that read
ing is the most important of all the
branches, for what progress can n
pupil make unless he can read
Too often we neglect the little first
reader class and think 1T of no con-
sequence it We are not so painstaking
with them as with the older mes.
The first two or three years form
the most critical period in a child's
school life. What we do or what
we do not do in those two or three
years will mar or make his future
success.
Let us be thorough with the
little ones, whatever we do.
Granting that pupils 10 the fifth
and sixth grades are fairly lntelli-
gent readers, several cases have
came to my notice where pupils are
trying to study too many things at
once. In country schools all grades
are generally represented, but there
is only one teacher and she has only
one day in which to teach the les
sons in five or six grades, while in
a graded school a whole day is given
to each grade. We have TO econo
mize time and combine classes, but
it seems unreasonable to see a pupil
trying to study geography, gram
mar and history all in the same
year. That much is not done in
graded schools by pupils who have
reached the higher grades only by
slow and careful steps. under the
best Of teachers, and where from
thirty to forty minutes is devoted
to each recitation.
According to u our Of study
geography should be completed be-
fore physiology and history are
taken up. Then physiology should
come before history and be finished
before the latter is begun, for his,
tory Is hard study and requires
more effort to do itwell.
What can We do when we find
ourselves in Q school where some OF
the pupils are dong too much;
Some way we must make them rea
lie the Importance Of thorough
work.
If we a get them interested and
make them comprehend the depth
and breadth of what they are study.
ing, they will he stimulated to
greater efforts and will not be So
quick to think they know II thing.
Ii they do not find out how shallow
their work has been until it is zoe
late to begin over, the blame viii
fall to us, and deservedly so.
Boys and girls shonld be led to
think of the responsibilities of life
and to comprehend to IL certain de,
gree, its meaning, SO that when
they are called upon to takea stand
for themselves they will have some.