The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-02-25

which loom up in his path at the
most unexpected time and the most
unusual places, often with no reason
whatever for appearing but the
doubtful one Of passing in "revlew. "
Of course, such being the case, he
goes down in ignominious defeat.
Though he knows '',butterdy" per-
fectly well on the first page where
the picture is, he fails to recognize it
on the second. In such an unphonetlc
and difficult language as ours it would
seem the wiser plan to give the child
a small vocabulary Of short wd drds
already familiar to him, which he
hears and uses daily. Longer and
more difficult words can be added
gradually and woven into the stories
which always delight the child.
With all the facilities of the mod
ern book-maker, this should truly be
the golden age to the child acquiring
knowledge. The child canot be
taught to read except by arousing his
own self-activity. "Make haste
slowly" is indeed a proverb worthy
of consideration at this nascent PEI
riod Of child's life. IF his interest
is aroused and. he wants to read he
will read; otherwise he will not. Al
fred the Great 5 mother was wise in}
deed in, her generation when she Of
fered to give the precious book to
the first Of her children who would
learn to read it. Perhaps she had not
Ilearnd psychology and child naturer
books, but she had the true key to
the situation-the interest Of the
child was aroused, and the result
was forthcoming. Alfredo won the
book.
The first two or three weeks Of
beginner should be very little work
on the pupil, but great deal on
the teacher. How can a beginner
study? Yet the first day he goes
home he should feel proud of. the
fact that he knows how to both spell
and read two words at the least.
The old time way Of teaching the
child his letters, "ding-donging'' on
a, b, c, for two or three weeks or
perhaps months, is time thrown away.
Give him. a word-for example, rose;
spell it for him several times,- point
ing out each letter; then have him
spell it. In a few minutes be will
know four letters, one word and how
to spell that word. The. letters r, and
e are then familiar to him. By add
ing a d he has the words red rose. In
this way child learns to read SURF
prisingly fast, and he never knows
when he learned his letters. To make
sure a child doesn't recognize the
word because it is near a picture or
has a certain place on the page, the
words should be written on the
board. A lesson to the little ones
should be made as much like a game
as possible. One way in which to do
this, yet at the same time acquire
quick recognition Of the words, is to
supply each child with pointer,
call out word by word, and let each
one try to be the first to find the
word. They take. great delight in
this. Then let each one separately
call over the words, pointing out
each word as he calls it. He should
be required to repeat sentence un-
til he gets the right expression.
Strange to say, some children in
spite of the fact that most of them
like. to ask questions, are very try1
ing when required to read a. question.
Repetition on the teachers part is
the only way to get around this
difficulty.
As the child advances great care
should be taken in selecting the sto-
ries given him to read, and the new
words should be pointed out to him,
requiring a correct spellin gand
pronunciation of them before he be-
gins to read his lesson.
The little beginner has had last
ing impression. made upon his mind,
and no doubt his character has been
partly nodded. The boy with the
germ of rudeness and snobbery lu1:kL;
ing within him is made to see himself
in the story Of the rich boy who got
into trouble and had to apologize to
the poor boy before he would help
him out of the ditch into which he
had fallen.
"Change your tone, my little man,
II II -