Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-04-25
Woman Teacher Here InOents Method
OF Instruction That Will Enrich her
Miss Maude Parmy, Daughter of Newark's Comptroller Sue
cessfuy Launches Marvellous System of Teaching Read
ing Which Stands the Test of Practical Application.

| 1t is generally accepted that all
! progress and indeed all civilization,
is the work of the i'm ginatlon. 1t
| lies behind Justice and bert the
hts of man and his educational ad-
vance. 1t is this gift of imaginati
! that enables such a teacher a NJ IS
| Maude Palmly instructor in primary
! re- ding in the Bruce Street School, OF
! this city, to formulate and a Ply
/ sys Ell or method y hich takes . len
children from the III dergaften, after
they have learDed a Ger ain mum Der
OF English words. and when they are
! five or six years old presents them as
pupils who can tn facility pro.
nounee words G. rrectly and .enJnclate
with a distinction worthy O. Lttle
! people of The stage.
COmptroiler's Daughter.
Miss Parmly is the daughter of the
comptroller of the city of Newark
and the sister OF the Broad street hat
merchant, j. Frank Parmly
She is fortunate in having been
able to test the accuracy and etli-
cheney of her method, com DinatiOn
of the invocation and use of the
senses of sound and sight, the ear
and the eye, IN awakening the minds
OF children, under the authority of a
principal (Dr. Blake) who is a man
of deep understanding, one diN es ed
of all the trammels of tradition and
of open mind in weighing the prac-
ticability of the modern ideas of the ,
educationist
Thus Miss Parmly has had the |
aid of q man of unprecedented mind !
and practical sense, an aid often de-
MED to the reformer and the indi- !
A.
In this category should be placed |
Miss Parmiy.
Her Bright italian Pupils.
Before the literary editor of the |
Evening Star a day or two ago Miss !
Parmly kindly exhibited a contingent
of her class in Bruce street and had
them read for the visitor a passage
from one of her reading books Mar /,
Vicious 1t was to hear these children, +
none more than five years of age and
all of them Italians, read with fiuency
and unhesitating precision a text
that some boy OF girl of ven, uAder
the time-honored method, would
stumble over as so many meaningless
words.
The bright eyes and interested faces .
Of these children and their intel / ent
rendition of the story showed that /
something more than words, that
ideas, indeed, were arising and pre-
senting q mselves to the mirrors of i
their minds as they read The whole
picture was worthy of the brush of a
master of the Dutch school of paint
ing.
Miss Parmly, a plain, dignihed
woman, so modest that she will not
allow her picture to be printed. has
published, through the American
Book Company, of New York, Gin
cinnati and Chicago, three readers
and manual for teachers, to which
manual the reader of this article is
referred if he would completely I'M
derstand the method of the Bruce
street schoolmistress.
Miss Parmly's Id a IS, as it seems
to us, the idea of the educational
realists, of whom Pestalozzi and |
E'roebel were the latter-day disciples,
and whose principle was that things, |
not words, must provide the organon
of education.
Abreast with the Times.
As the prospectus of the publishers, |
who were deeply interested in Miss |
Parmly's method. says;
THE Parmly method is thoroughly |
abreast of the times in giving the |
children stories worth while from the |
very first, instead of such absurd |
sentences as L see cat ETC." The |
efficacy of this method is seen in the |
little class which we have described |
The children in it, Italians, as we |
have said, have been in the country
but a short time and entered the (
class of Miss Parmly only last Feb
ruary.
The formal of the manual for
teachers and the readers is beauti- |
full and the latter are illustrated in |
an artistic and very attractive way.
1t Is certain that the method of !
Miss Parmly is destined to bring her |
fame and wealth. 1t is inevitable, |
and her very modesty and self
depreciation will, in the end, be a |
stimulus to the curiosity of educa- |
for publicity so often seen. for in
stance, In the clerical fed.
A suggestion of the system of Miss |
Parmly Is contained in a note In one |
of her books. She says:
THE method presents a fundamen- |
tai technique of teaching reading |
that gives the key to individual |
power for all future reading. 1t en-
ploys literature from the very first
lessons Experience has proved that
by this method children of six years
of age at least will learn new matter
independently and intelligently in the
shortest possible time and with the
least expenditure Of energy on the
part of both pupil and teacher
There are certain elements in the
method of Miss Parmly which are
not absolutely original, but in the
application of her principle she is
wholly original She may be a mas
ter plagiarist, but, like Shakespeare
and Moliere, when she found her ma
| terial she took 1t, and while the re-
suits she obtains will be immortal,
those from whom she obtained 1t are
forgotten in a day.
Her Rank Among Women.
A woman who can teach children
to read in less than three months,
even aliens of another tongue as well
| as race, deserves to rank with such
| women as the famous Dottoressa
Montessori, and she is of more prac-
| tical value to the world than such
brilliant ornaments of their sex as
Mrs. Sommerville or the learned
Marquse de Chatelet.
| AS one watched the small Italo-
Americans reading a bright little
story, picture arose of another
class, confined in this case to one
pupil, in the ateier of a Newark
teacher of music. The professor was
attempting to instruct the young
man before him In the art of tonic
expression and in the proper exercise
| of a rather good, though immature,
baritone voice. There was trouble
and despair on the part of the teach
err. Again and again he gave a viva
voce expression of what he desired
and of what he thought the pupil, If
he tried, could initiate perfectly.
Alas! unlike the brilliant little star
\ eyed children in the reading class,