Evening star., 1938-06-15
Reading Basic
Subject in
Education
The Key to Unlock
Stored Wisdom
Of the Ages.
BY ANGELO PATRI.

EVERY term end the teacher is
perplexed about q certain child
There is always one to q class, some
how. Shall he go ahead? Or stay
back? He is not 50 good in arith-
metic. Some days he gets 30; other
days down he goes to go, maybe worse
But on one test. and no easy one,
he was well up in the first quarter
of the class. Maybe he could get
along.
Reading? Reading is important.
Yes. he can read fairly well. He
knows all the words. but sometimes
YOU can see he is getting no meaning
out of them. Just reads the words
without any apparent interest or un-
derstanding. But you can't say he
doesn't read
History and geography? Grammar?
Well, 30 so. Just like the arithmetic
and reading. He seems to have
flashes Of illumination succeeded by
utter darkness. But you can't say
he is failure and you certainly can
not say he is q success. 1t is hard
to say what to do that is right for
him.
My vote is for promoting him. Then
teaching him to read. Some chill
dren are slower about getting mean
ing out Of words than others. They
need help on this. Whenever q child
does passing work in number COM
putations and fails in problems we
usually discover that he does not get
the meaning Of the language Of the
problem. The words get in his way.
Clear the meaning Of the wording
for him. and he goes ahead. OF
course. If he cannot get the meaning
Of printed words he will fail in his
tory and the rest Of the textbook SUBJ
jects.
Reading is the basic subject in all
education. Teach q child to read
and you hand him the key to all
knowledge. Fail to teach him reading
and he has no key to unlock the stored
wisdom Of the ages He is helpless
with all manner of help in sight. He
Is starving amid richness.
It Is not always possible to teach
children to read. Some of them have
physical defects that make reading
impossible. But these children are
easily discovered in the primary
grades. The children who can read,
and who only wait for intensive, per-
sonally directed instruction, are in
the higher grades failing in problem
work in arithmetic, failing in text
book subjects. II we teach them to
read understandingly they will get
along very well.
These children slip by the lower
grade teachers because they have not
SO much meaningful reading to do.
There the work Is to recognize and
pronounce the words. get the simple
narrative, and state it in . few words
and sentences. The classes are big.
the essential knowledge easy enough
to grasp. But when the pupil reaches
the higher grades he is called upon
to translate the words into ideas,
and he fails. He must be given extra
time and individual help according
70 MS need.
We need few coaching teachers
IN every school, whose duty it shall
be to help failing children keep their
places. Chief among them should
be the reading teacher, the one who
teaches pupils to read for ideas, the
one who helps them interpret words
That teacher will be worth double her
salary in any school.
Mr.. Patri will give personal at
tention 70 inquiries from parents
and school teachers on the care
and development Of children. Write
him In care q this paper. inclos-
ms S-cent stamped, self-ad-
dressed envelope for reply.
tcopyrisAt. 1880