Evening star., 1927-11-13
BY BEN McKEIWAY.

The class of 1914 Is learning to read,
The Washington public schools sec
ton of this class spent last year in
the Kindergarten where various and
Sundry matters were duly considered.
Now it is learning to rend Despite
it's handicaps, knowing how to read is
rather important. In importatice it
probably ranks next to knowing how
to talk. although some contend that
knowing how not to talk is more i'm
portant still. But the class of 1914 il
at this time tackling subject which
must he mastered ii its members ful.
fill their parents expectations and bc.
come President of the United States
4 President must know how to road
and some Of them have known how tn
write. so far the class has made no
table progress. Some time since it
could read at a gEtnce. Good MORT
inc to YOU" and October is here"
the latter sentence, however. now he
ing wholly irrelevant. 1t i; also bc-
coming quite proficient in tranalnting:
The farmer said, "The sun is up"
The faimer said, Good morning
The farmer esd, Come and see
the SUM-
The farmer told the hen the sun
is up.
The farmer told the rooster the
SUN Is up.
Maybe there Ia propaganda in this
which should be looked into. The
child conceives the impression that
the farmer must so around waking
up the hens and roOsters to tell them
the sun is up. Later en- in lite the
child will realize the tull significance
Of this, for he will know bow ea:iy
hens and roosters get up in the
morning. His sympathy will he al
together with the farmer. who has to
wake them up. and automatically he
will favor farm relief. There is no
telling what would happen IL the
farmer were relieved. At any rate.
the class Of 1914 knows the word
'Fafmer,' and during the coming
Winter the fathers Uf the class of
1914 Will derive much fathefly pride
hs picking UP any newspaper ana
asking members of the class TO find
the word Farmer" on the first page
X 4 Il 4
Like many other things. the art oil
learning to read has advanced ana
changed considerably. Not so many
Years back there was the alphabet
period Of learning to- fcad-a period
which gave birth to such immortal
stanZas as:
A b C. D r f G.,
II X,
EllemenOapee.
n :, r Il V;
W %YZ.
Now I've learned my ABC
Tell me what you think of me.
II Uas aleo during this period that
Tho famu,,s words of one syllable flour
ished and really came into their own
strns of the more notable OF tines
words being Cat" Hat, Hat.
mat" Red" "Sat," etc. While
learning thes alphabet the child was
taught the sounds of the letters ana
in short time was able to- acquire
reading vocabulary sufficient To per-
NIT him to obtain such enlightening
information as: Nat Had Red Hat.
Nat Had Cat. The Cat Sat on the
JIAt of Nat and Nat Did Cry at the
Cat. The Cat Did Eat Rat. The Cat
Did Not Eat Nat and Nat Did Not Fat
the Cat" The theory seemed to be
that children learning to read spoke
only in words of one syllable. although
this theory was combined with the
tnUu90t tnJC the tnliu IIlust itdEu tHt
sound of Hat before he could mastet
Hit-tef.
Later still there was the craze over
phonics. when children were taught
the sound of the letters and combna-
tions of letters before any attempt
was made to teach them the sense
and meaning of written words. Chill
dren meeting for the first time such
words as 'Chicopse" made weird
noises not Unlike the audible efforts
Of q locomotive trying to get uhGer
way OH slippery rails. or a hay fever
victim struggling with stubborn
sneeze. A classroom sounding
words gave forth series of harsh ex-
CARNATIONS formed In the region of
the cultural fossa over such things as
Going" and the high tension under
which the teachers perforce lived may
have had something to do with The
petfectiOn Of the method i'm use today.