SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS 



THE original matter in this Reader has been 

 written and the selections chosen with the desire 

 of putting into the hands of little children litera- 

 ture which shall have, for their minds, the same 

 interest and value that really good books and maga- 

 zines have for grown-up people. It is the author's 

 aim to prepare the ground and even thus early to 

 plant the seeds of that which may later develop into 

 a taste for art, for literature, and for nature. 



But this most desirable result cannot be accom- 

 plished by merely putting the Reader in the hands 

 of the child, expecting him to master the words l)y 

 reading the sentences ; to get at the thought while 

 he stumbles and hesitates over unfamiliar words. 



There are perhaps some teachers who fail to de^ 

 velop the thought through their anxiety to give aii 

 exhaustive drill on the words : their form, their pro 

 nunciation, their meaning, and use. 



There are others, perhaps a more numerous class, 

 who spend so much time in developing the thought-, 

 and in practising artificial and elaborate devices for 

 teaching " expression," that they pay no attention to 

 the necessary mechanics of reading. 



