Reading.As a branch of formal instruction, we begin with reading. A more aggravating subject of dispute can hardly be found than that which relates to the teaching of reading. The pure Fröbellian will have none of it before the child is seven years old, and occasionally children do come to school unable to read, but with the senses awakened to all sorts of other relations except that of articulate sounds to written forms. In spite of the reproaches of those who build the sepulchres of the prophets, we teach reading when a child seems ready for it, and maintain that the principles of Fröbel are best carried out when we improve on his methods, and adapt ourselves to new circumstances; we urge that the children from intellectual homes are different from the class of children with whom he had most to do.
When begun.I would not press reading upon infants, nor require the close and continuous attention that reading implies, but as soon as the appetite for any special kind of knowledge is shown, we may conclude, on Fröbellian principles, that the child is fit for it. Our order is: (1) drawing, (2) writing, (3) reading.
First lessons.The kindergarten child has learned to draw lines, straight and curved, developing into simple objects and curious patterns—rude picture-writing, it may be called. We lead on to writing in some such way as this.
Alphabet.“How did men at first send silent messages to one another when they were far off? If you wanted a doll, you might draw a picture of one and send it to mother on your birthday. A man might make a picture of a fish, and send it to a fisherman with a piece of money, and the fisherman would understand; or one might want to sell a sheep, and send a picture to his neighbour; this would be easier than sending the sheep. In fact, the first letter of the alphabet is a rude picture of the head of an ox,
. People were not particular, as we see on old monuments, which way the letter stood, and so we have it sometimes topsy-turvy, sometimes sideways,
; this is like a Greek alpha,
,