The sun., 1916-10-08
where Are the McGuRys?

Where Are the McGunys?
How dear to our hearts are the
Headers of childhood, when fond
recollection presents them to view
In an article on Renders in the Good
Old Days in the Educational Rcrtr
Professor JOHN j. MAHoNEY Of the
State Normal School Mt Lowell, Mass,
hnzes us With memories Of Great Nc
GuFFY and the lesser architects Of the
temple of education.
The way to high Parnassus Is now
not a climb. but n leap. The alphabet
is junk. children read pictures and
master words by some mythico-mys-
teal association Of ideas" II Old
Blue Back and NOAH. who taught
millions to read and not one to SIM"
are alive to-day It IL in the blessed
provinces.
Professor MAHoNEY treats us richly
to examples" and that IL better than
spreading before us the arguments
In favor Of science or literature or
history or patriotism or morals as
| the best core for a series Of reading
text books. WEBSTER taught spelling
through sentences like these, which
| could hardly pass through the child.
ish mind without having some atoms
Of wisdom stick:
'"The chewing Of tobacco IN . useless
CUSTOM"
Fiction ia . creature Of the imasina-
ton"
Large bushy whiskers require . good
deal OF nursing and training"
1.-THE Child's Spelling Book" pub
llshed at Hartford in 179S. has this:
"wnl mamma give CHARLES some
beer? Yes, CHARLES shall have some
beer" We are certain 1t must have
been CHARLEs who grew up to this
("Clinton Primer" 1s3O):
WHO loves Q horse race! Are moi too
many fond Of Il? Does It not lead TO
many evils. and to frequent ruin7 Never
70 to . horse race. Mr.. Mix had one
child. whom ne called IRENE; he had also
. good farm n some money. He went
to the ace with his child. dressed in
black crepe for the loss Of her mother.
Here Mr.. My drank freely. ana bet
largely. and lost all he was worth. At
night no went homo a oegear: took .
dose Of brandy and died before morning.
leaving his child . penniless orphan.
Never 20 to . horse racA"
In 1910 HORACE MANN quoted with
scorn this old fashioned reading from
the Webster speller:
"En-o. no. emm-ai-sn. man. ANIMAL
~. may. pee-you-tee. put, ~o-doubie-eff.
OF. tssaitch-ee. the, eii-ai-double-you.
law. o-ef. of. gee-o-dee. GoD."
Absurd, ne called II. Still, out Of
that old system grows the wonder OF
teachers to-day "how primary chill
dren were trained to handle such an
imposing vocabulary" as appears in
this from Lesson V. in the "New
Primer" Newark. 1882: 1.-THE Tiger
IL remarkable for his strength and
the beauty Of his skin he IL a treach-
erous and ferocious animal and very
difficult to tame" JONATHAN ED
WARDS reading Greek in tho cradle
and Hebrew when other lads Of his
age were Mt zone a. cat" IL matched
to-day about rs much MS are the ten
year old readers Of fifty years ago.
Wasn't there sense as well as fun in
LRAurr's Easy Lessons" 1923, with
Its drill in "b":
The baboon babbled ana bluobe red,
baboied in ribbons. gabbled in Gtbber-
ish. played hobnob with q robin. brow
beat the tabby. made q hubbub for the
rabbls. brbed q nabob. and barbarously
~bambooxled . 6ooby.-
We do not care to adjudicate the
case Of tho "mixt methods" Profess
sor MAHoNEY mentions. Nor would
we "babble in ribbons" about the A.
B-C's or which we grew up and make
"a hubbub for the rabble" on the
"method" by which our friends of to-
morrow are learning to-day to read
us: what we want to know Is whether
JACK and EDDIE and TOMMY. kept
In" for failures In photography, are
spirited enough IN performing the
pensum, fifty times "I will be more
obedient and Industrious" TO slip In
the sly negative to test Teachers own
alertness. The rod is gone. Has
"keeping In" followed 1t In this Age
OF Pity, when sin Is sickness and cor.
rection Is a work Of healing. not
punishment?