11 



WHAT SHOULD OUR BOYS EE AD? 



Teachers can largely determine the reading of their scholars' 

 out of school. It is important not only to a-waken a love 

 of books, but to guide in their selection and form a taste 

 for profitable reading. Scholars should be encouraged to 

 have some good book always at home, in which they read 

 a little every day. In school they should be invited to 

 tell what they have read. To give an epitome of one's reading 

 is an admirable school exercise. The pupil will peruse a book 

 with ten-fold greater interest, when expecting to epitomize his 

 author before the school. As a drill of memory and in language 

 it is a most useful exercise, and is one that is sure to interest 

 as well as profit the school. Having experienced these advan- 

 tages in my own teaching, and witnessed them in many schools, 

 I strongly recommend this practice, already adopted by some, 

 to all the teachers of Connecticut. Instead of giving here a list 

 of books for all the youth of the State, I advise teachers to 

 recommend well known works in adaptation to the age, taste 

 and advancement of individual pupils, usually those which 

 they themselves have read, that they may the better appreciate 

 and criticise the epitomes of the same by the pupils. 



An eminent teacher recently asked a class of fifty-seven boys. 

 What is the last book you have read? One answered ''I 

 haven't read any lately," another, " I don't remember," " can't 

 tell " said a third. But the great majority were able to give an 

 account of their reading, which was most creditable to their 

 teacher, evincing his wholesome influence over his pupils out- 

 side of the school room. Twenty-seven had been reading 

 works of history and biography, including Life and Times of 

 Benjamin Franklin, Life of Prescott, Higginson's History of 

 the United States, Irving's Washington, Lives of Cicero, Han- 

 nibal, C^sar, Xerxes, Alexander, Ferdinand and Isabella. 

 Three boys were reading Dickens' History of England and one 

 was enjoying Bancroft's ten volume History of the United 



