The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1895-02-01
METHODS OF PRIMARY READING.
VIII,
Phonetic Method.
BY William Noetling.

the phonetic rethod has been present.
ed in as many different forms as it
has had authors. DR.. Adolph Donai,
of New York, highly educated Ger
man, and teacher and writer. in 1872
published his "Series of Rational
Readers, combining the principles of
Pestalozzi's and Froebeps systems o.
education, with a systematic clasilfica-
tion Of English words, by which their
pronunciation, orthography, and ety.
mology may be taught readily with.
out any new signs"
In his Manual for Teachers the
learned Doctor arraigns not only the
methods of teaching one subject, for
the unsatisfactory results so common
in all grades of schools, but all of
them. Though twenty-three years
have elapsed since these charges were
made, they apply with nearly equal
force to the school work Of to day.
The following are some of his state
ments 1t would be unjust TO over.
look some of the impediments to
higher standard of education, which
retard the progress of our common
schools as the lack Of Kinder
gartens the admission of too many
children into the lowest classes; the
irregular attendance of pupils, and
the short p,riod during which many Of
them are kept in school-also the
,,ary noDr Dranarot t;o,, 4, r,oct 20, Ok -re
for their difficult and all important
calling. But if the efficiency of our
methods of teaching were what it
ought to be, all these impediments
might be overcome. Teaching is a
feeding Of the mind; if the food of our
schools were more palatable, the at
tendance would be considerably larger,
teachers would find more self-enjoy-
ment in their calling and would feel
encouraged and stimulated to do more
justice to it, and better results of their
efforts would lead to further improve
ments such as are necessary to more
rapid progress. ="
The manner in which what are
called 'the common English branches
pronunciation, orthogrophy, gram
mar, etymology, and elocutio,,) are
commonly taught, presents strange
contrast to the progressive spirit of
our age. 1t consumes almost all the
time in the teaching of language, as
though there were no such things to
be learned in the world as Natural
Sciences, Arts, and Mathematics ; it
succeeds even IN teaching English 50
poorly, that there are very few persons
in the country who can in every case
determine, on sufficient grounds, what
is really good and correct English it
develops the mind Of the pupils in
most one sided way, addressing itself
to the memory and passive receptivity
Of the learner, and neglecting the cul-
ture Of his intellect, moral faculties,
and artistic tastes and abilities, as
though there never had existed those
great prophets of harmonious dc.
oel0pment and reformers of pedagogy,
Pestalozzie, Diestermeg, and Froebel;
it makes the teacher mere machine
for rehearsing recita'ions, s,-the pupil
mere machine for committing to
memory the sounds and spelings an.d
definitions Of words, and the. contents
OF some text books, which are soon
after forgotten-in short, its results
are trivial in comparison with the
time and money spent on attaining
them. But what is worse, it does ir.
reparable harm by bunting and i'm
poverishing the mental and moral IA
cultles of most pupils, SO that they re.
main forever beyond the pale of self
improvement.
ga one sided development of hu-
man faculties will always blunt and
lmpoverish, if not stihe, those which
are neglected, The cultivation of the
receptive powers merely must needs
curtall the measure of the reflective,
active and sensitive powers. Dwarfed
powers beget discomfort, while an
over-excrtlon of the one power begets
disgust with its exercises.
Those who overcome that disgust and
are assigned great number of spell
ing exercises Of difficult words. with
out learning etyoaologically their ap
propriate use in language, can certain
ly not be said to make much progress
in the development of their reflective,
active, and artistic powers. Again
much of their school-time is wasted on
dry lessons in that driest of all studies
--grammar. The study of this sub
ject, as commonly pursued, is',about as
nearly useless as anything can be. 1t
consists chiefly in memorizing dehni-
tions and rules (many Of which are at
variance with the teachings of COM
parative philology) and in parsi'aa
and dnaiyzing sentences without at
tending to composition. Pupils are
required to continue separating lang
uage into parts, without being taught