A little careful study convinces us that there are two general fields which all readers must explore. The subjects which appear and reappear upon the pages of books have their source either in nature or in human experience. When we teach the child to read books, we must also teach him to apprehend that of which books treat. This teaching will necessarily include observation of nature and observation of human experience. To read “The Village Blacksmith” requires some knowledge of a blacksmith’s work and its associations: the horse and his shoes, the molten iron and its action, the sounding anvil and its use, the reason for the “honest sweat” upon the brow of him who “owes not any man.” Knowledge of nature and knowledge of human experience are surely needed in order to read the thought in this poem. He whose experience is richest will obtain the richest harvest from this field. Any act of reading will teach us this truth with regard to our own experience. It ought also to point the way for all teaching of children. A visit to a blacksmith’s shop is the best possible preparation for a study of “The Village Blacksmith.” If such a visit is impossible (is it ever impossible?), pictures and talks may help to supply the need. The language lesson in the one form or the other is necessary to the full interpretation of the reading. So of any poem or story which tells of the life of the farmer, the miller, the baker, the sailor, the fisherman, the shoemaker, the mother. The language lesson which serves to make the experience real to the children helps them to understand the reading lesson, and gives added power for the interpretation of all such lessons in the future.
Such language lessons should not be considered as something added to the school course. They are legitimate reading lessons, inasmuch as they prepare for the study of pages which would be meaningless to many pupils without such preparation. The teacher will of course choose her own time for such lessons. Often they are given in connection with the reading lesson itself. A wiser plan ordinarily is that which allots a specific time for the observation or the conversation which is necessary to explain the reading lesson. If the first period of the morning is set aside for oral language, the subjects for this period may be easily determined by the reading lesson, and selected to accord with and prepare for it.
A few illustrative lessons appear in another chapter. They are intended to serve as suggestions merely, for those to whom such lessons are to open a new field. It is believed that in the majority of school-rooms such teaching is already a common feature.
And to get peace, if you want it, make for yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. Those are nests in the sea, indeed, but safe beyond all others. Do you know what fairy palaces you may build of beautiful thought, proof against all adversity? Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure houses of precious and restful thoughts, which care can not disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from us; houses built without hands for our souls to live in.
—John Ruskin.
