Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-11-24
An Old Teachers Views.

To the Editor Of The Evening Star:
Will you allow an old teacher suace To
suggest a few considerations upon the SUBJ
ject of instruction in the schools recently
discussed by contributors In your columns?
1 fear there is too much reason fer dis
satisfaction with the 'new-fangled'' curri-
cula and methods of the lower grades; that
any "pater familias" may justly deplore
the present teaching of English, for in
stance. as meager and fruitless. The YER
nacular is so fundamentally importan: that
IL seems a pity IL is not taught more thor
oUghly and is SO largely displaced hy
studies that could be pursued with more
facility after the pupils have learned TO
interpret words and sentences-suCh crdi-
nary words and such sentences as they
have TO deal with In those studies. OF
course, do not mean the technical or scien-
tIfic words peculiar TO the study. as the
botanical terms In the study of plants.
The great problem of education" a promi-
nent school officer says, lis the sequence
of presentation That is SO. with refer
ence both to the order of topics I'm each
study, and to the succession and roncomit-
ance of the studies themselves. Now IL in
evfta3ly battles and distracts the learner
and impedes his progress in either direction
to divide his attention between two objects
simultaneously, to have to learn the ele-
ments of language as parallel study with
| geography, history or botany, when each is
a main object and both are Joined in the
same exercise and recitation. 4 his plan.
however. has been adopted in many
schools, with the result that the language
study is obscured and neglected. The eX-
ercises used are well enough, If they were
used merely as language exercises, for The
study of words and their relations; hut in
the method i am condemning attention is
absorbed by the story or the pretty PIC
lures. Wherefore would IL not he better
to use isolated sentences and paragraphs
for elementary language work, al least
teachers ladies O. a
botany, or whatever the ether science may
be, for separate course, in which a knowl-
edge of the elements of linguistic express
sion is necessary for sure and easy Prog
ress TO any extent, as IL is We often find
pupils trying to learn some high school
without knowing how 10 use a dictionary.
Now, as some power of Thought IS requi-
site to understand the principles of gram
mar. its elements and :heir relations. prob
ably the study of arithmetic shoali be
started first Perhaps the beginnings Ct
thought development should he made with
numbers rather than with words. But
from the necessities of the case, if the indie
pendent ability to get the exact and COM
plete meaning of sentences and terms is
appreciated language study viii be started
early and forwarded persisten:ly along
with the other elementary branches. More
over, if the foregoing is at all true. Ian
guage study is not well restricted TO dicta-
ton and initiative sentence building, The
setting down paper what / know"
about this man or that thing, or the de-
Scribing a picnic. such compositions 10 be
corrected by the teacher. The ,iucative
force of these corrections. standing isolated
as they do, is slight. How is .he pupil TO
avoid the same fault in future unless he
knows to what class of arrangements it
applies? And how is he to know tris with
cut a knowledge of the grammatical rcla-
tionship? How many scholars in the High
School can tell what what relatiye)
means? If they could all be asked this
without their having made a special in
quiry beforehand. j should like 10 know
what per cent of them gave ehe right an
Swer.
A further important problem is what
phase or part of a subject to teach when
it is first taken up in the lower grades.
This should be easy for the authorities TO
solve. In grammar IL is too much for chill
dren of nine or ten 10 try to analyze thu
longer and more involved sentences (Which
agrees precisely with this other fact, that
Il is too much to have such children read
such sentences or deal in any way with
necessary or even conveniently. Nor should
they he asked to learn punctuation SO ear
ly, save the use of the q, the %, the %,
the @ and the very plainest uses OF the %,
when * sets off appositiTss. Panctua-
ton in its entirety belongs in the last year
of the grammar school eighth grade) and
to rhetoric Qaigh SCHOOL,. However, as re-
CARDS grammar, the question with the au-
thorities seems to have been not what tart
of IL should be taught in certain grade,
but whether IT should be taught anywhere
at all, and this question appears 20 have
been answered in the negative.
EN-PEDAGOGUE