The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-03

piied With astonishing rapIditv. In rapid
succession followed the word method the
phonlc method, the phonetic method, the
seneehce method and last, but not least
.iie natural method. As each method came
~ ~ vogue II was thought by its followers
| - s the panacea for all the ills of
'edehlng reading. As n matter of fact no
oae .h inepnod met all the needs. Probably
eue rational method has met the de-
ihanas more largely than any other one
ioetilod. This method is used exclusively
~ ~ sohie cities today. Where this method
Is used exclusively the teachers are re-
W., Gu TO adhere strictly to the method
winch requires the use of certain books
| ohiS. ihe latest of these methods Is
the natural method, which has been used
50 successfully under the direction of Miss
| ,ook IN one of the Chicago schools. All
vi these methods have been in Use 1or
ears, some of them for many years, and
an are In Use today. The only difference
Is tnal today the teacher. unless other
wise directed, selects from each method
that which the class needs"
ana isn't the same true of spelling?'
I asked.
Yes" said Miss Rittenberry. For
long time there was no method of teach
ing spelling. The child was given SO many
words ana told to learn them, but how
they were to be learned was no concern
OF the teacher. Later oral concert spell
ing was considered a way of learning To
spell, and the whole school chanted the
words aloud Then syllabifying came into
practice, and this was some time done
in concert The writing of each word sew
eral times was next tried as a means of
learning the word. At last the meaning
and use We're considered as aids in the
learning of words. Out of all these meth
DDS has grown the present day method of
I having the child learn a word by hearing.
seeing, making and using IT. As in read
Ing, there is no great difference in past
and present methods of teaching spelling.
The difference lies In the power of selee-
ton of the teacher.
But grammap," I suggested, has
caused more discussion than all the
rest"
Probably the subject of grammar has
caused more hard Fought, wordy battles
than any other. Whether or not him
go is phrase or clause in 1 saw him
CO. is still a disputed question. Shall we
say times is SO or shall we say times
6 are s6, is debated today. Twenty years
ago 1t is me- was blue peneiled by the
teacher. Today the teacher suggests that
Tt is / is far better. Ten years from
now IT is me- will probably be correct.
You can readily see that the subject of
grammar changes. or grows, as the peo-
pie change said Miss Rttenberry. "rhe
old method of teaching grammar pre-
sented everything according to form, and
had very little meaning to the child until
he studied some infected language like
Latin, Greek or German. The idea of
form still prevails, but use is the domi-
nant idea. To illustrate. noun or pro-
noun is in the nominative case because
1t is the subject of verb, not because
it is spelled a certain way"
do the pupils have as hard time learn-
ing to parse as they used to, or do they
diagram?" | asked
Yes. they still try to parse. but NOT
so much as in the past Diagramming 10
not so popular as 1t once was. 1t is now
used largely as a means of making plain
that part of the thought that the mind
cannot grasp without assistance, or as
a short way of giving the written analy-
sis of sentences" was the answer.
''There is a great difference in the
method of presenting the work in COM
position today from what it has been
in the past. In the not so long ago the
child was given subject and told to
write SO many pages about it. The teach
er was not concerned about the pupils
interest or knowledge of the subject. To-
day the work is first given in sentence
building or grouping, paragraph making
and connecting or relating. Several sub
jects are named and discussed and out
of these one is selected. The introduce
ton, or the way to approach the sub
jeet, and the conclusion, or the way of
closing a discussion, are suggested. Fin
ally an outline of the whole composition
is made by the class, and the child is
asked to elaborate or fill in his outline
In this way the pupil is taught to stick
to his subject, as well as how to begin
and end his discussion. After sufficient
practice with assistance from the teach
er the child is asked to make his own
outline as well write the composition"
I'm what respect are the methods of
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