The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-02-18
LEARNING TO READ NOWADAYS.
The Old Fashioned Cat Cat Method
No Longer in Use.

How Is little child taught to read
in these days? is a question that
troubles many parents.
THE man who went to school until
he was old enough to go to work re-
members how he was taught to read
and according to a writer in Teach
er and Home, thinks ne knows what
a dreary time his child is having.
He sends his small son to school
only to discover that the child is ex-
pected to read before he can spell
cat. This father would like to know
how child can read without know
ing how to spell a word.
THE great problem in teaching
reading to beginners is to form an
unerring. almost automatic connection
between speech. ear language and eye
language.
I'VE recognize that we must reach
the child's mind through his senses
by the way Of his instincts, and that
having reached his mind we must i'm
press by means Of drill those arbitrary
signs which represent thoughts.
These principles have led to the
use OF stories, rhymes. poems, dramat-
ization and other devices which par
ents do not always understand and
therefore condemn as nonsense, even
sometimes putting them among the
fads and frills. There is no nonsense
about them. but the soundest COM
mon sense.
When / want you to know my
1rlend Jones do L show you a derby
hat, purple necktie and gray over
coat and expect you to know Jones
when you see him and to he able to
call him by name? Yet this is what
children are expected to do when they
are taught in the good old way be-
ginning with the alphabet and then
spelling their words as first steps in
reading
Under the Old plan children were
taught to cali &C. by the name see,
"a by the name 'ay', and t. by the
name tee then they were expected
to put see, ay, tee" together and say
the word cat No wonder reading
was such a drag; the marvel is that
they ever learned to read.
What l really do about Jones to
make him known to you is to tell you
little tale about him. tell you
that Jones lives in a three room apart
.nent and keeps four dogs; then along
comes Jones with his four dogs and
| introduce him TO you. What hap
pens? Your mind is ready for Jones,
you look at him with interest, and the
next time you see him, whether the
dogs are with him or not, you know
him. Later on you may notice that
he always appears in a derby hat,
purple necktie and gray overcoat but
the main fact is that you know him
again whenever you see him.
Now 1t is upon this common, or
dinary, everyday method that we
teach beginners to read. We tell a
little story to rouse the children's in
terest. This story has some central
thought contained in the words the
child will be expected TO read. We
repeat the story till we are assured
that every little tot knows it sufficient
ly we'll to repeat the central thought
with its exact words.
Now we put that thought on the
blackboard and tell the children we
are going to let them read. Here
again we are satisfying the childens
Instincts. for little ones love to imi-
tate their elders, and in these DAYS of
much reading every child tries to
read before he goes to school.
Now the teacher asks a question
that will be answered in the words
on the blackboard. such as, Who was
Bab?'
THE child answers, Bah was a
brown baby
Then the teacher asks the same
question again, and as the child an