Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-06-26
The
Rambler
:. Sees
A Breukthrough
by JOHN McKELwAY

WOEu, ana reauS IL IN DOlu,
sure voice for the first time,
the teacher ought to shout,
"By George, she's got it," and
break into song.
The breakthrough, when it
comes, is as impressive as a
sonic boom, lightning or the
wind up Of the "Stars and
Stripes Forever" It is prob
ably the reason people con-
tinue to teach reading.
1T happened the other day
out at a private school called
the Town and Country Day
School near Wheaton.
The Rambler has not the
slightest idea what caused it
whether it was the teacher,
the new method, the child's
background, or what.
But he, a little boy, a grad
uate of kindergarten, looked
up at the black board and
the word, up" He made
some sounds for "U" and
then "P" and when the
sounds ran together he was
astounded and said, "That's
a. word, Up"
Murmurs of admiration
came out Of a group Of
teachers watching the show
and the Rambler recalled the
absolutely wonderful sensa-
ton that hung on for hours
after the word "Cat" was
finally grasped after days
at sea.
The incident occurred dur
ing a demonstration Of a new
way to teach reading-Some-
thing called words In
Color"
1t was developed by an
educator named Caleb Cat
tegno who, some years back,
was kind enough to work out
a new way to teach mathe-
mates. also with the use Of
color. 1t is said to have met
with some success.
o.
WILLIAM COHEN, HEAD
MASTER of the school, a man
who will take a chance on
new methods, set up the
workshop for teachers in the
Washington area. He COL
lected some small students
for the demonstration and
then assured the teachers he
had not stacked" the group
with a bunch of high los.
DR.. Dorothea Hinman. an
assistant to DR.. Gattegno,
handled the teaching. She
was obviously a fine, patient
teacher who probably could
get results with the slowest
student, using the worst
method available. DR.. Hin
mans are, sadly, in short
supply.
1t may be that, in time, DR..
Gattegno will be held respon-
Sible for why Cecilia can't
read-Johnny having been
rescued, apparently. As for
now, DR.. Gattegno may have
something.
To try and put 1t simply,
the good doctor has devel-
oped a code Of symbols, in
color, for all the distinctive
sounds in the English Ian
guage without changing the
traditional way of spelling.
And since there are more
sounds than symbols, or let
tiers of the alphabet, one Of
the big confusions of learn
ing how to read has been
when the beginner has found
the same letter does not al
ways have the same sound.
They are sneaky.
DR.. Hinman, using differ
ent colorS OF chalk, put down
each letter in color. She got
the children, putting the
com binations together,
sounding like a flight Of
geese.
And, within IS minutes, she
had them reading words like
Tap. and Pat" and up"
She had them get the words
together, a few moments
later, into sentences which
read pat sat up"
TT WAS NOT DONE en-
tirely in color. Once they
seemed to recognize the color
combinations and words like,
"sit," and, pit" and "us,"
the teacher handed them a
sheet with the words in black
and white.
They then began matching
up the colored words on the
blackboard TO the words they
held in their hands, in black
and white, on a sheet Of
paper.
The session went down hill
when one little girl an
nounced, II want'a 60 home"
It was after that that they
began squirting In the seats.
But apparently something