The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1894-09-13
General Directions to Teachers.

General Directions TO Teachers.
In Wow OF questions prlpounded to
me by teachers and, knowing that
parents must be Interested in every
thing that ministers to the right eIu-
cation Of their children, take the
liberty OF ranscribing these General
Directions 70 Teachers from my last
Course Of instruction to the Ironton
echoOs
Before passing from that part Of the
Course OF obstruction which is com
p!eted in the Primary Department, its
great relative importance rs the bAte
of the whole superstructure of an edu-
cation, induces metz Offer few sug-
gestions for the help of PR nary
teachers.
allow shall teach John to read?"
is one Of the most important and diff
cult questions that battles the teacher.
At least four distinct methods have
received recognitiOn-the Alpha
bette, the Word, the Phonic and the
Sentence Method, The last is not
generally known, and the first, the
a, b, method was long since aban-
dOned by all teachers who keep up
with the times Some teachers still
retain one Of the bad features of this
obsolete system-"the process of spell.
ing through to reading;' but, when
they weigh it in the scales of common
sense, they find it wanting in every
element Of utility.
The word is the unit of language,
and with the spoken word the child
is already familiar, Acting upon the
well established educational principle
OF "golng from the known TO the un.
known" it is easy to teach him the
printed and written representative Of
that familiar word. After a certain
number OF words have been learned as
wholes, pupils should spell these words
by sound. The power, or sound Of
letters is much more easily learned
through familiar words than abstracty
and, in little while, the child, who is
taught phonically, is able to deter
mine new words for himself. There
is not, usually, any helpful relation
between the name of u letter and lis
power in a word.
Beginners should be taught each
word at sigh, as a whole, and the
sound Of the letters which compose il
afterward. The names OF the letters
will be learned incidentally as soon al
needed by most children.
When the sounds OF the letters anC
their names have thus been learned
the teacher should adopt freely, at he
own discretion, the word method Of
the phonic method in teaching new
words. Sometimes one and sometimes
the other is preferable. The word
taught are to be Immediately com
bined into sentences. The word thu
becomes associated in the childs mine
with an idea. He sees ts meanin
or force and it becomes his property
Teachers should see that the chile
knows the meaning OF every new word
and that he is able to pronounce
accurately and distinctly with natura
meditation and without drawline
We would formulate the process hus
First, the idea second, the spoke
word; third, the printed or writer
word fourth, the sounds OF the letter
compo'ing the word fifth, the name
OF the letters composing the word
In teaching reading, we would urg
all teachers to observe the followin
ouESCoNlOhe
lst Do not permit your pupils t
attempt the reading OF sentence III
I'll the words are 50 thoroughly mas
tered that they can be readily pre-
nounced at sight.
End Let the standard for good read
ing be its resemblance to good tdlkin,
3rd Train your pupils to tell wha
they read
4th Thoroughly master the mean
ing Of the words read
Since spelling is chiefly useful i
writing, it should be taught mainl
through the sense OF sight. To TIN
end difficult words, correctly spelled
should be placed upon the board an,
thus rendered familiar to the sight.