Special Method in the Reading of Complete English Classics Part 10

But we may believe that a spirited treatment of this part of the story of Ulysses in reading lessons, including his stay and treatment among the Phaeacians, will give the children much appreciation of the beauty and power of this old story. By means of occasional readings of other selected parts of the "Odyssey," from Bryant or Palmer, some of the most striking pictures in the story of his wanderings can be presented. Even the children may find time for some of this additional, outside reading.

In any event the story of Ulysses, as a piece of great literature, can thus be brought home to the understandings and hearts of children, and will const.i.tute henceforward a part of that rich furniture of the mind which we call culture.

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT POINTS IN READING

1. The teacher's effort is first directed to a vivid interpretation of the author's thought and feeling, and later to an expressive rendering of the thought.

2. Every exertion should be made to lead the children to an absorbed and interested attention in the selections.

3. The author's leading motive in the whole selection should be firmly grasped by the teacher. By centring all discussion toward this motive, unnecessary digressions will be avoided.

4. The teacher will hardly teach well unless he has saturated himself with the spirit of the selection, and enjoys it. To this end he needs not only to study the selection, but also the historical, geographical, biographical, and other side-lights.

5. The teacher needs great freedom and versatility in the use of his materials. Warmth, animation, and freedom of manner are necessary.

6. Children often do not know how to study a reading lesson. In the a.s.signment and in the way of handling the lesson they should be taught how to get at it, how to understand and enjoy it.

7. In the a.s.signment of the lesson the thought of the piece should be opened up in an interesting way, and such difficulties as children are not likely to grapple with and master for themselves pointed out and approached. Difficult words need to be p.r.o.nounced and hard pa.s.sages explained.

8. The a.s.signment should be unmistakably clear and definite, so as to insure a good seat study.

9. The seat study should be chiefly on parts already discussed in cla.s.s.

10. During the recitation proper, strong cla.s.s attention by all the members of the cla.s.s is a first necessity. Much knowledge, alertness, and skill are necessary to secure this. One must keep all the members of the cla.s.s in the eye constantly, and distribute the questions and work among them promptly and judiciously, so as to secure concentrated effort.

11. The teacher can often judge a recitation better without looking at the book while the cla.s.s is reading.

12. Skill in questioning is very useful in reading lessons.

(_a_) Questions to arouse the thought should appeal to the experience of children.

(_b_) Questions to bring out the meaning of words or pa.s.sages, or to expose errors or to develop thought, should be clear and specific, not long and ambiguous.

13. Let the teacher be satisfied with reasonable answers, and not insist on the precise verbal form present to his own mind.

14. The teacher needs to awaken strongly the imagination in picturing scenes, in interpreting poetic images and figures, and in impersonating characters. The picture-forming power is stimulated by apt questions, by suggestion of the teacher, by interpretation, by appeal to experience, by dramatic action.

15. The use of the dialogue and dramatic representation is among the best means of awakening interest and producing freedom and self-forgetfulness.

16. The pupil should give his own interpretation, subject to correction, and interpret parts in relation to the whole.

17. Without too much loss of time children should learn to help themselves in overcoming difficulties in solving problems.

18. Sometimes it is well for children to come prepared to ask definite questions on parts they do not understand.

19. The tendency to more independent and mature thinking is encouraged by comparing similar ideas, figures of speech, and language in different poems and from different authors.

20. There should be much effective reading and not much mere oral reproduction. The paraphrase may be used at times to give the pupil a larger view of the content of the piece.

21. Let the pupil reading feel responsible for giving to the cla.s.s the content of the printed page. Often it is best to face the cla.s.s.

22. The teacher should occasionally read a pa.s.sage in the best style for the pupils, not for direct imitation, but to suggest the higher ideals and spirit of good reading. A high standard is thus set up.

23. Children should be encouraged to learn by heart the pa.s.sages they like. In the midst of the recitation it is well occasionally to memorize a pa.s.sage.

24. The teacher must drill himself in clear-cut enunciation of short vowels, final consonants, and pure vowel sounds. Cultivate also a quick ear for accurate enunciation in the pupils and for pleasing tones.

Frequent drill exercise, singly and in concert, is necessary.

25. Use ingenuity by indirect methods to overcome nasality, stuttering, nervously rapid reading, slovenly and careless expression, monotone, and singsong.

26. By means of physical training, deep breathing, vigorous thought work, encourage to self-reliant manner and good physical position.

27. Give variety to each lesson; avoid monotony and humdrum.

28. Each lesson should emphasize a particular aim, determined by the nature of the selection or by the previous bad habits and faults of the children in reading. It is impossible to give proper emphasis to all things in each lesson, and indefiniteness and monotony are the result.

CHAPTER VI

THE VALUE OF CLa.s.sICS TO THE TEACHER

In discussing the value and fruitfulness of this field of study to children, it is impossible to forbear the suggestion of its scope and significance for teachers. If the masters of song and expression are able to work so strongly upon the immature minds of children, how much deeper the influence upon the mature and thoughtful minds of teachable teachers! They above all others should have dispositions receptive of the best educational influences. The duties and experiences of their daily work predispose them toward an earnest and teachable spirit. In very many cases, therefore, their minds are wide open to the reception of the best. And how deep and wide and many-sided is this enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of the soul through literature!

It is a gateway to history; not, however, that castaway sh.e.l.l which our text-books, in the form of a dull recital of facts, call history; but its heart and soul, the living, breathing men and women, the source and incentive of great movements and struggles toward the light. Literature does not make the study of history superfluous, but it puts a purpose into history which lies deeper than the facts, it sifts out the wheat from the chaff, casts aside the superficial and accidental, and gets down into the deep current of events where living causes are at work.

The "Courtship of Miles Standish," for example, is deeper and stronger than history because it idealizes the stern and rigid qualities of the Puritan, while John Alden and Priscilla touch a deeper universal sympathy, and body forth in forms of beauty that pulsing human love which antedates the Puritan and underlies all forms of religion and society.

Ill.u.s.trative cases have been given in sufficient abundance to show that literature, among other things, has a strong political side. It grasps with a master hand those questions which involve true patriotism. It exalts them into ideals, and fires the hearts of the people to devotion and sacrifice for their fulfilment.

Burke's "Oration on the American War" is, to one who has studied American history, an astonishing confirmation of how righteous and far-sighted were the principles for which Samuel Adams and the other patriots struggled at the opening of the Revolution. Webster's speech at Bunker Hill is a graphic and fervent retrospect on the past of a great struggle, and a prophetic view of the swelling tide of individual, social, and national well-being.

If the teacher is to interpret history to school children, he must learn to grasp what is essential and vital; he must be able to discriminate between those events which are trivial and those of lasting concern. The study of our best American literature will reveal to him this distinction, and make him a keen and comprehensive critic of political affairs.

Barnett, in his "Common Sense in Education and Teaching" (p. 170), says:--

"In the second place, literature provides us with historical landmarks.

We cannot be said to understand the general 'history' of a particular time unless we know something of the thought that stirred its most subtle thinkers, and interpreted and made articulate the spirit of the times in which they lived. The most notable facts in the history of the times of Edward III, of Elizabeth, and of Victoria are that Chaucer and Shakespeare and Tennyson and their contemporaries lived and wrote.

Political history, social history, economic history, even ecclesiastical history, are all reflected, ill.u.s.trated, and interpreted by what we find in the great works of contemporary literature."

Charles Kingsley, in his "Literary and General Essays" (p. 249), holds a like opinion:--

"I said that the ages of history were a.n.a.logous to the ages of man, and that each age of literature was the truest picture of the history of its day, and for this very reason English literature is the best, perhaps the only, teacher of English history, to women especially. For it seems to me that it is princ.i.p.ally by the help of such an extended literary course that we can cultivate a just and enlarged taste which will connect education with the deepest feelings of the heart."

Literature is also a mirror that reflects many sides of social life and usage. There is no part of a teacher's education that is so vital to his practical success as social culture. John Locke's "Thoughts on Education" are, in the main, an inquiry into the methods and means by which an English gentleman can be formed. The aim of the tutor who has this difficult task is not chiefly to give learning, to fill the mind with information, to develop mentality, but to train the practical judgment in harmony with gentlemanly conduct. The tutor, himself a scholar, is to know the world, its ins and outs, its varieties of social distinction and usage, its snares and pitfalls, its wise men and fools.

The child is to learn to look the world in the face and understand it, to know himself and to be master of himself and of his conduct, to appreciate other people in their moods and characters, and to adapt himself prudently and with tact to the practical needs. The gentleman whom Locke sets up as his ideal is not a fashion-plate figure, not a drawing-room gallant, but a clear-headed man who understands other people and himself, and has been led by insensible degrees to so shape his habitual conduct as most wisely to answer his needs in the real world. Emerson, with all his lofty idealism and unconventionalism, has an ideal of education nearly akin to that of Locke. This social ideal of Locke and Emerson is one that American teachers can well afford to ponder. As a nation, we have been accustomed to think that a certain amount of roughness and boorishness was necessary as a veil to cover the strongest manly qualities. Smoothness and tact and polish, however successful they may be in real life, are, theoretically at least, at a discount. The Adamses, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Th.o.r.eau, were men who did violence in a good many ways to social usages, and we may admire their faults overmuch.