The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-06-25
READING FIRST
SAYS COTTON
STATE SUPERINTENDENT
is PREPARING INSTRUC-
TIONS FOR SCHOOL
TEACHERS AS AID
IN COMING
YEAR.

reading and the best method OIL
teaching it has a prominent place
i'll the course OF study which Fas-
sett \. Cotton, state superinten-
dent of public instruction, is pre-
pairing for the schools OF the state
during the coming year.
Mr.. Cotton declares that read
ing stands first in the course OF
study because it furnishes the key
that unlocks the door TO every
other subject and that in teaching
it the child should be divorced to
a large extent from the text book
and the child's world should fur
nish the basis OF his choice in
reading. The teacher may set it
down as unqualifiedly true says
Mr.. Cotton, that the child can
not be taught to read from a text
book"
Through reading, Mr.. Cotton
SAYS, the child is TO find out all
he will ever know. His work is
Interpretation and it may be me-
chanical or deeply significant.
The child when he comes to
school, has an ear vocabulary and
,reading must help him translate
this into an eye vocabulary. The
printed words that he learns will
become the symbols OF the deep
er significance of life and in them
he must learn to read his most
subtle experience.
The everyday experience OF
the child with all his imagery
must be employed in the interpre>
tation, it is declared. Natural ex-
preston on the part of the child
can come only out of his own life
He must furnish his own reading
1 lesson out of the abundance of his
own experience and must tell it in
his own way. The child may give
the fullest and most natural ex-
preston to some childish expert
ence and when the teacher has
written the experience on the
blackboard, the child may be
made to realize that the language
is the symbol of his actual ex-
perience.
Then later, Mr.. Cotton says
after the child has learned to read
the teacher should Still make his
choice of reading matter reflect
the life of the child. The poet
ry of nature and the prose of farm
and field should be chosen in part
at least" it is suggested, because
in these the child will find himself
and will realize that his world is
recognized This, OF course re-
fers principally to the country pu.
: pill, and the country boy and girl
Mr.. Cotton declares, possess The
, imagery with which to interpre
Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Gray
, Thompson, Burns, Bryant anc
Whittier.
Discussing the requisites of /;
good teacher of reading, Mr.. Cot
ton says reading can only be per
fectly natural when the reader
/. feels what he is reading. In th'
school room the child should b,
just as free and natural in hi.
reading as he is in his play a
home. This can never be >unde
the traditional school room order
Under the strained relations tina
generally exist, natural express
sion is impossible. Teacher ant
children must be themselves
Ability to maintain such relation
is the first requisite of a goot
5 teacher of reading. The child 70
I the time must be the characte
+, portrayed. The teacher who cal
make the child forget his sur
roundings and lose himself in tn
/. lesson has a rare quality. TIL,
t lessons should come out of tn,
: lives of the children themselve.
instead of books"