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 CLASSICS 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 enfranchisement of the soul through literature!
It is a gateway to history; not, however, that castaway shell 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.