To the writer the time given to concert reading in the elementary schools seems ill-spent. Definite teaching and practice are possible only when the pupils are considered as individuals. Droning and indifference are cultivated by the concert exercise.
The above statements apply to all exercises whose object is to teach reading. Declamation or recitation of the poem or paragraph which has been studied, read, and mastered by the individuals of the class, or which presents merely an imitation of the teacher’s reading, is included under another head. It deals with known material, and presupposes training which leads to a common interpretation. Such recitation partakes of the nature of song, and here the power to render the thought in unison becomes an element of value. For such exercises special training should be given.
In schools where it is possible for the classes to meet in the hall for morning exercises, or even in preparation for the devotional exercises of any single class, such training is indispensable. To know how to read in responsive exercises, to join with others in the rendition of a favorite psalm, hymn, or other poem, is no trivial acquisition. It is worth while to include in our reading exercises such lessons as will develop this power. Does the ordinary concert exercise do this?
“My country tiserty,
Sweet lanter libbutty,”
a child sang happily in a primary school the other day. Upon investigation it fell out that several members of the class sang the same combination.
A parallel instance was reported recently by a teacher whose pupils begged to be allowed to recite
“There’s an old dude left on the daisies and clover.”
Lovers of Jean Ingelow’s exquisite “Songs of Seven” may well take alarm, and inquire the cause of the difficulty.