Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1895-10-02
CORRESPONDENCE
Something About Teaching the
Young Idea How to Shoot.

Young Idea How to Shoot.
Mr.. EDITOR: 1t gives me pleas
ure to reply to the courteous re-
marks of Mr.. Fuller. Of course he
used the title of Professor extrav-
agantly before my name, but who
can not endure small amount of
irony mingled with other thoughts
in 30 fair reply? In justice to
Mr.. Fuller, / will state that he IS a
professor" and, SO far as l have
been able to learn, he does honor
to his profession.
In the first place, thegentleman
brings forth his argument in fa-
vor of using the fourth reader in
stead of a primary history in his
school. His reason for this is,
that be must have book in which
is expressed variety of feeling,
in other words, give the child a
psychological course along with
his reading. I hope my friend
does not think that the child is
able to read according to his analy-
sis of reading when he (the child)
hos reached the fourth reader. To
read as my friend has his pupils
read is a rare accomplishment even
among scholars. By-the-way, ]
dare say my friends pupils cannot
pronounce difficult words in the
fourth reader, much less awaken in
the auditor the identical feeling of
the author. Mr.. Fuller, you get
rare accomplishments ahead of ev-
ery-day necessities. l think you
would do better to teach your pu-
pills how to pronounce words. cor
rectly, read dramatically, etc.
before you give them practice in
elocution, and the subtle points
of rhetoric. For this purpose, you
will fnd Swinton's first history of
our country sufficient. You can
question them on what they have
read and find out whether they
have understood it. Then you will
be saving time, teaching your pupil
to read, and teaching them histo-
ry. A live teacher can make histo-
ry interesting to a pupil, and he
will take more delight in reading
than he would in a fourth reader.
Save time, my friend! A boy or
girl in the country cannot attend
school ten months in the year.
Again, my friend tackles me
on my method of teaching Ian
guage. Really, l believe 1 con-
vinced him that the easiest way
to learn language is through
it's correlative science. l think /
could see in his argument against
me on, at least, that point he was
arguing against his own convic-
tions. Says Mr.. Fuller. "The very
fact that good usage determines
the law of language makes clear
the fact We learn to use good Ian
guage by using it." Yes but, Mr..
Fuller, I now ask you, sir, what
determines the law of good Usage?
Before word or expression can he
in good use it must be used by
classical and literary writer's. Let
millions of your unscientific ar
fists use it. and it must stay i'll the
background as vulgarism, or
localism, or some other ism until,
wrested from it's obscurity, it is
placed by the hand of science
upon some page of literary art.
Don't you see, Mr.. Fuller, that art
is the application of science, and
when you tell your pupil that 80
and SO is correct English, and that
he will be safe in using it as you
say, he is after all only applying
in good faith the science he gets
from you as his author; but you
see the difficulty of the pupil lies
in the fact that he must remember
everything you tell him, unless
you tell him why these things you
are telling him are scientific. l
say it is dead lift to the memory
to learn language lessons that are
void of the science of grammar.
While I am with Mr.. Fuller i'll say
ing that the memory is one of the
first faculties to develop, yet I say
that faculty can be overtaxed in
childhood, and the child given
mental indigestion. We want the
child's mind disciplined right in
it's early years. 1t is not the
amount of knowledge gained in a
certain length of time that should
be called progress in a school, but,
en- the other hand, the parent
should ask the teacher to what ex-
tent has he endeavored to dlscip-
line his child's mind. 1t is not
the child who can recite the most
rules TOR good usage from memory
that knows best how to use our
language, but it is he who recites
few rules, and then tells you why
he recitee them. ] know we make
our art more perfect by practice,
but we wish to know why we prac-
tice after we begin the study of
language. l do not object to tell
ing the child few things, such as
are contained in Swinton's Word
Book about the use of correct
words, but do not believe in
crowding the child's memory full
of lot of stuff that surely will
disgust him.
M. T,,l1os ,.u. ll.l IL ~