SECOND HALF-YEAR

(251)

FROM MORN TILL NIGHT ON A FLORIDA RIVER (393)

INTRODUCTION.

This book is designed to furnish a rich and varied supply of reading matter suited to the interests and needs of children in the latter part of their grammar school work. The selections, chosen from among the masterpieces of English and American literature, are offered because of their beauty and worthbecause they are good to read and to re-read. The groupings into separate parts will aid both teachers and pupils in classifying the material, indicating at a glance the range and variety of literature included.

Part One includes both poetry and prose, and the selections offered are of superior excellence. The stirring notes of patriotism from our American authors find fitting supplement in the captivating stories of Sir Walter Scott, which have delighted old and young for many generations. These furnish a basis in enthusiasm for the appeal to heroism and devotion. The series of nature poems and songs from Shakespeare fittingly complete a group of literary creations, notable for their beauty of expression and their clearness of thought and imagery.

Part Two contains some of the romances of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. These beautiful legends of adventure and chivalry which have charmed old and young for countless generations furnish exceptional materials for inculcating some fundamental qualities of human character. For the lesson of these brave knights going forth to render loving service to others, overcoming evil in the pursuit of good, developing in themselves the divine qualities of purity, benevolence, and good-will, must make powerfully for righteousness in the youthful reader, the would-be knight of the present.

Part Three is given to a study of the great American authors, and no apology is needed either for the choice of material or for the list of names included. They represent the makers of our

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American literature and the selections chosen, both prose and poetry, are from the best of the authors' writings. From Irving to Holmes, the spirit and thoughts of our developing nation are portrayed in a distinctively American literature, and some of the choicest treasures of that creative period are here brought together. Through these, the children may become familiar with the life of the past and may be made conscious of some of its lessons for the present and the future.

The biographies are intended to acquaint the children with the personal characteristics and lives of the authors, making them more interesting and real to the children, giving them the human touch and incidentally furnishing helpful data for interpreting their writings. The Biographical Introduction to Part III gives a related story of the lives of the American authors from whose writings selections have been made in this book. "Helps to Study" include questions and notes designed to stimulate inquiry on the part of pupils and to suggest fruitful lines of study. Only a few points are suggested, to indicate the way, and no attempt is made to cover the ground in all directions; this remains for the teacher to do.

It is not expected that the order of selections will be followed. On the contrary, each teacher will follow the order which will best suit his own plans and purposes. While there is much material in the book that will reënforce lessons in history, geography, and nature study, yet it is not for this that these selections should be studied, but rather for the pleasure that comes from reading beautiful thoughts beautifully expressed. The reading lesson should therefore be a study of literature, and it should lead the children to find beauty of thought and feeling, fitness in figures of speech, and delicate shades of meaning in words. Literature is an art, and the chief aim of the reading lesson is to discover and interpret its art qualities. In this way children learn how to read books and are enabled to appreciate the literary treasures of the race. The business of the reading book is to furnish the best available material for this purpose.

It is worth while to make a thorough study of a few wellchosen selections. Through the power gained in this way children are enabled to interpret and enjoy other selections without the aid of the teacher. If the class work is for the most part of the intensive kind, the pupil will read the remaining lessons alone for the pleasure of it, which is at once the secret and goal of good teaching in literature. Moreover, he will be led to exercise discriminating taste and judgment in his choice of reading matter. To love good literature, to find pleasure in read-. ing it and to gain power to choose it with discrimination are the supreme ends to be attained by the reading lesson. For this reason, some selections should be read many times for the pleasure they give the children. In music the teacher sometimes calls for expressions of preference among songs: "What song shall we sing, children?" So in reading, "What selection shall we read ?". is a good question for the teacher to ask frequently. Thus children come to make familiar friends of some of the stories and poems, and find genuine enjoyment in reading these again and again.

Good results may also be obtained by assigning to a pupil a particular lesson which he is expected to prepare. On a given day he will read to the class the selection assigned to him. The pupil who can read one selection well has gone a long way toward being a good reader. The teacher who said to her pupils, "I shall read to you tomorrow," recognized the value of an occasional exercise of this kind in arousing the interest of her pupils. Good pedagogy approves of a judicious use of methods of imitation in teaching reading.

A. T. Quiller-Couch says: "I believe that if, for one-half hour a day; a teacher were to read good poetry aloud with his pupils, not fretting them with comments, not harrying them with too frequent questions, but doing his best by voice and manner to hold their attention, and encourage them to read in their turn, pausing only at some salient beauty, or some unusual difficulty, above all giving the poetry time to sink in-I believe thoroughly he would find himself rewarded beyond all

calculations. For a child's mind is a wonderful worker if we only trust it. A child's imagination is as susceptible of improvement by exercise as his judgment or memory. Can we not so persuade our schoolmasters that our children may hear this music more clearly and more constantly than we?"

While placing emphasis primarily on the thought-getting process the formalities of thought-giving must not be overlooked. The technique of reading, though always subordinate and secondary to the mastery of the thought, nevertheless claims constant and careful attention. Good reading requires clear enunciation and correct pronunciation, and these can be secured only when the teacher steadily insists upon them. The increase of foreign elements in our school population and the influence of these upon clearness and accuracy of speech furnish added reason for attention to these details. Special drill exercises should be given and the habit of using the dictionary freely should be firmly established in pupils. The ready use of the dictionary and other reference books for pronunciation and meaning of words, for historical and mythical allusions should be steadily cultivated. Without doubt much of the reading accepted in the public schools is seriously deficient in these particulars. The art of good reading can be cultivated by judicious training and the school should spare no pains to realize this result.

Professor Clark, in his book on "How to Teach Reading," sets forth clearly the situation. We quote a few of the sentences from his treatment of these important topics:

Appreciation of the meaning and beauty of literature is the first requisite of a successful teacher of reading; and yet in many parts of the country there are a surprising number who are called upon to teach with scarcely more than an elementary training in literature. As a result too many teachers have no love for literature.

OBJECTS TO BE ATTAINED.

It may be asked, what objects are to be attained as a result of reading lessons? First, the power to extract thought from the printed page. After we leave school, our information is gained from books; and what we get from these is largely determined by our school training. Our system of education has much to answer for in failing