Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-09
SECONDARY DEPARTMENT.
The Value of Reading in the Teach
ing of English.


ing of English.
The session of the secondary department
was held in the Central High School There
was a good attendance. A feature of the
meeting was the argument in favor OF
making the study of English the core of
the course in secondary education, strong
ly presented by John c. Hanna of the Co
lumbus, Ohio, High School.
In considering a course in English for
secondary schools Miss Charity Dye of the
indianapolis High School presented the syl-
labus of one providing for five lessons
week in English for four years. Miss Dye
assumed that the high school existed pri-
marily to prepare students for life: second
arily, to fit them for college. She outlined
the minimum requirements for entrance TO
secondary school, and arranged the course
in eight groups, to correspond to the eight
half years, making literature the basis OF
the work
She advocated a proportionate amount of
American literature for the education of
youth who are to live in and perpetuate
growing democracy. She said: The Itera-
ture produced in this country has claims of
its own independent of conformity to the
standard of classical antiquity of rnediaeyal
feudalsm."
illustrations were given to prove how the
increasing spirit Of democracy had en-
larged art standards to include new sub
1ects and broader sympathes. She named
selections or American literature which had
dignifed life and labor this side of the Ar
!antic, and which had helped to produce
mere a literature that is both national and
American.
Main Principles.
Samuel Thurber, master In the Girls
High School, Boston, Mass. took for his
subject Main Principles of Secondary
English Training"
NO teacher, he said, could copy model
OF method devised by another person. Pr.-
stribed schemes of work are harmful, be-
cause they tempt to imitation Only In
aims and principles is unity desirable.
College requirements create unreal needs
and must be neglected IN a true methodic
of English.
All attempts to enlarge the youths com
mand OF language must proceed on the
principle that language is acquired only ty
absorption simultaneously with the acqui-
sition of ideas. Language does rot exist
ard cannot be taught, for it's own sake
Manuals of composition are useless. Both
the child and the youth absorb new speech
IRON their environment, and absorb it with
freedom and a rapidity proportional 10
the stimulating quality of this environ
ment.
The mistake of the school people is in
supposing they can teach expression
directly, by Analysing It into its elements
ard then teaching the elements in success
sion. The teachers instinct is to level the
mother tongue as a school discipline un-
DER the same rules of procedure that are
applied to other subjects But language
must be learned unconsciousy, and must
be taught by teaching something else
Grammar and rhetoric are not, to Youth
interesting subjects; their formulas may be
Committed to memory, but can yield no re-
turn speech culture Faithful of
a book Of rhetoric prepares for examina-
ton, but not for writing English.
Value of Literature.
The study which furnishes the great op-
portunities for teaching language Is iitera-
ture. But only through the literature which
interests will language be learned. Lftera-
ture. supposing 1t well chosen, will, he
made interesting chiefly by being we'll read
The language-sense is reached and touched
through the voice. The English teacher
must positively have considerable acquaint-
ance with literature must know an album
dance of good pieces, and must be able to
commend them by his reading. When the
learners attention is caught by piece Of
literature he hears 1t effectually, and while
he takes in the story, he takes in also the
language.
The chief obstacle to making literature in
school interesting lies in our devotion to
the custom of examination. No one reads
with pleasure who anticipates being con-
fronted by an examiner with questions
meant to probe his knowledge of what he
has read. Examinationism is a disease
just now having great run in our educa-
tiCn. Other school subjects may endure ex-
animation and cram, but literature cannot.
The literature teacher should see to it that
his class profits by every Inomen-, as the
moments pass. In this subject. post
poned test Of remembered matter has TO
proper function wha tever.