The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-10-13

MIR. EDITOR:-I must preface my
remarks by observing that L attended
the summer school and was well pleas
ed, on the whole, with what l saw and
heard. The Board OF Education had
evidently spared no expense in furth-
ering the cause of education, and to
this end the Board was well backed
up by a jealous body of intelligent
teachers, whose hearts were in their
work, and who did not spare them
selves
In some respects freely admit, with
out going into details, that the newer
methods are an advance upon the old;
but the new methods evidently have
their limits and faults.
Take phonics, for instance. The sys-
tenn of teaching the vowel and conso-
nant sounds. is certainly an advance
upon no system at all; but although
the discritical marks are, with the as
sistance of the teacher, of some SER
vice in arriving at the pronunciation
of each vowel sound, with it's differ
ences of sound, the phonic system, in
my opinion, falls utterly to pieces
when it attempts to give us the conso-
nant sounds. The barbaric jargon, the
uncouth sounds that class is taught
to repeat in chorus are, to my thinking,
a poor preparation for the study of the
language Shakespeare, above all our
great poets, has shown the nervous
although not one of the greatest verbal
opponents of his own works, he no
doubt insisted, when lessee of Drury
Lane Theater, that the oral expression
should be equally beautiful with the
written expression. Did he not tell the
players to pronounce their parts trip
pingly on the tongue? How is this adj
vice acted up to by the teachers? The
-'r'' sound is the most uncouth of all
the consonants, and instead of soften
ing it, they further emphasize it by
prolonged and hideous er-r-r-r, giving
it the West of England pronunciation.
Could the shade of Shakespeare revisit
the earth and enter class room, l
could well understand its eXclaiming
in reference to the language, "To what
base uses has it come"
The very simple system Of teaching
the vowel sounds adopted in Chambers
Psychological English Dictionary
number of years ago, am inclined to
think would be sufficient for all pur-
poses with the aid of oral instruction,
such as is given in phonics.
On three or four occasions | attend
ed the Nature Study class. The system
of teaching in this is evidently capable
of indefinite Improvement, and is a
long way behind the old method. In
the old method a class would be taken
into the meadows, lanes and heaths of
the country, and would be invited to
pluck specimens of various kinds, and
the teacher would then explain to
what order they belonged and give
every information about them. In the
new method it is a study of nature
with nature conspicuous by its alb
sence. Nor is it a study of botany, for
there was no attempt at classification.
Morning after morning a whole series
of questions were asked by the teacher,
and haphazard answers were given in
the absence of the objects themselves.
There was not the slightest excuse for
this dry-a-dust method, inasmuch as
the school is located in beautiful
grounds, where a great variety of
plants and trees are growing.
Nor did 1 find that the method of
advance upon the old system. The
teacher impaired his information by
the use of the globe. On one occasion
he illustrated the movement of the
moon around the earth. This he did
by telling the pupils to imagine that
he walked around the globe with bas-
ket TO represent the moon. This did
not represent the moons movement in
the slightest degree, nor did it in any
way indicate the fact that the moon
turns on its axis in the same time
this to the teacher when the class was
over. He had announced that he would
tell the class some more about the |
moon the next morning, but when the |
morning arrived found that the moon
had suddenly dropped out of the firma-
ment, and was not again heard of. 1t
was perhaps as well the teacher did
not attempt to give an illustration of
the earth's movements, inasmuch as
they are as complex as those of the
moon. Surely an elementary knowl-
edge of astronomy is essential in teach
ing geography.