The vital element in literature—its ultimate raison d’etre—is its ethical import. It constitutes the ethical medium. It gives each child the benefit of the experience of the race. The duty of the school to give occasion for the exercise of ethical judgments is greater than its duty to train the merely intellectual judgment. For the one determines what is good or bad, the other what is real or unreal. Right conduct is of more importance than mere knowing.
READING.
The teaching of the mechanics of reading concerns itself with affixing visual images of words to the auditory vocabulary already possessed by the child. As this is a purely formal process, having little educative value in itself, the judicious teacher will welcome any suggestion toward minimizing routine drill. Instead of attempting to fix the visual form of each word, she will limit the formal instruction to giving the child a capability of deciphering new words for himself, that is, of translating them into motor images of articulation. Instruction that does not give to the child this capability is wasting time and misdirecting energy.
In order to have facility in the mastering of new words, it is necessary that there be a knowledge of the vocal value of the letters and an acquaintance with the groups into which words may be separated according to similarity of sound. Thus daily short drills upon the purely formal side seems a necessity. This should be done in a separate exercise, however.
At the same time this formal process should not be wholly divorced from the thought side. The learner should be able to grasp quickly the meaning the sentence conveys as a whole, and to give it natural expression. To make this connection between the two elements as close as possible, the sentences to be given visual form should be taken from the children themselves. These can be written on the board, or printed in large type on Manila sheets (forming a chart),[A] or in ordinary type on slips to be given to the children.
The possession by the class of the common subject-matter which the stories supply, renders this plan feasible and always full of interest. Knowledge of the content will reinforce the recognition of words and sentences and thus make progress in acquiring a visual vocabulary rapid and, in part, unconscious. Moreover, the anticipation of the meaning of what is about to be read will result in a natural expression of it. If the child has even a provisional grasp of the meaning of the whole sentence before attempting to read it, the expression will largely take care of itself. Until the comprehension of the meaning is instantaneous, there should always be a preliminary study of the sentence to be read, so that the thought as a whole may at least be foreshadowed in the mind of the child.
In this way there is a vital relation between reading as a formal process and that which is read. This obviates the necessity of using isolated and unfamiliar topics as well as those having no value in themselves. From the first the reading matter should have value for the child—be related to his stage of thought and to his dominant interests.
DRAWING, ETC.
The stories are an excellent source from which to draw material for expression in the various aesthetic exercises—drawing, paper cutting, modeling clay, or dramatization. Whatever the form, it should be the spontaneous portrayal of the child’s own imagery. However crude the product may be, if it is a genuine attempt at such expression, it has the essential element of an aesthetic creation and should have our respect as such. With a very little instruction in putting on sky and ground, in representing distance, progress will be rapid.
Drawing should be in a color medium, and be a daily exercise. Paper-cutting is of absorbing interest to children and is a form of school art that rapidly gives definiteness to the images of natural objects. It brings out a high degree of manual dexterity and offers almost as wide a scope for individual composition as drawing.