Reading is first mechanical, and then intellectual and emotional. In the
primary schools attention is first given to mechanical training, while
the intellectual and emotional culture is necessarily in a degree
postponed. When the first part of the work is thoroughly done, there is
no ground for complaint, and we may look to the teachers of advanced
classes and schools for the proper performance of the remaining duty.
The ability to spell arbitrarily, either in writing or orally, and the
ability to read mechanically,--that is, the ability to seize the words
readily, and utter them fluently and accurately,--must be acquired by
much spelling and much reading.
This work belongs to the early years of school-life; and, if it can be
faithfully performed, the introduction of text-books in grammar,
geography and arithmetic, may be wisely postponed. But it is a sad
condition of things, which we are often compelled to contemplate, when a
pupil, who might have become a respectable reader had the elementary
training been careful, accurate and long-continued, is introduced to an
advanced class, and there struggles against obstacles which he cannot
comprehend, and which the teacher cannot remove, and finally leaves the
school without the ability to read in a manner intelligible to himself,
or satisfactory to others. It is the appropriate work of primary
schools, and of the teachers of primary classes in district schools, to
develop and chasten the moral powers of children, to train them in those
habits and practices that are favorable to health and life, whether
anything is known of physiology as a science or not, and to give the
best culture possible to the eye, the ear, the hand and the voice.
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