220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In " easy reading," children do not call the words printed, but others 

 partly synonymous, or at least consistent. How is this* to be looked 

 at ? It is a very trifling fault, so far as the real intellectual part of 

 reading goes ; the part we need in life, and which of all things should 

 be taught. This fault, as it is called, is a good omen. You do not find 

 the sluggards and the blockheads guilty of it. They continue the in- 

 fantile fault first spoken of. This substitution of equivalent terms for 

 those printed is done, and can be done, only by the bright, the active, 

 the thoughtful. Observation will prove that this is invariably so. 

 This fault teachers can well afibrd not only to tolerate, but to encour- 

 age. It indicates the presence of the only thing that is wanted the 

 clear grasping of the thought. It arises only because the pupil so 

 fully comprehends that he is able by anticipation to supply a word 

 for the author, if not the word. Such mistakes are worthy of remark, 

 and, for the purpose of actually learning to read, there cannot be a 

 better recitation than one made up entirely of such errors. Twenty 

 reading-lessons devoted to this paraphrasing, and kindred work, to 

 one of the ordinary kind of lessons, would work a wonderful change 

 in the mental status of our children. 



It is true, in the abstract, that words are the signs of ideas ; but it 

 is not true that the utterance of words by children is a sign that they 

 possess the idea. "We are taught in childhood upon the assumption 

 that every sentence pronounced leaves its distinct and proper coun- 

 terpart in our mind. None can know so well as teachers how far this 

 is from being true ; and how much more reliable as an indication of 

 full mental perception, tone, inflection, emj^hasis, feature are, than the 

 recital of the words. There is no fact which so loudly calls for the 

 consideration of teachers as this that the reading or reciting of words 

 is a very uncertain sign that the idea is lodged in the child's mind. 

 There is need for a new exercise and method in the teaching of read- 

 ing ; an exercise for teaching pure mental reading ; a means of in- 

 struction in which things more reliable than words shall be taken as 

 proof that the idea is grasped ; a test of the accuracy of mental per- 

 ception in which such unreliable evidence shall not be heard. There 

 are devices which partly answer this purpose, but they cannot be de- 

 scribed here. 



If the real object to be aimed at in teaching reading were appre- 

 hended, there would be more use made of maxims, forms, riddles, etc. 

 Every philosophic teacher must perceive their utility. They are of 

 value only as a means of discipline ; but there is nothing which so 

 easily and strongly stimulates concentration of thought. They afibrd 

 an opportunity to judge infallibly whether or not the learner clearly 

 perceives. He is a rare child, indeed, who can read a pun, or any 

 joke, to himself, and whose countenance will not promptly reveal to 

 the slightest observation whether or not he " sees it." . This cannot be 

 said of ordinary sentences. 



