imimmmf ^'f- 
 

PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 
 
 OF 
 
 TEACHING READING 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 N2W YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
 DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON • BOMBAY ■ CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 
 
 OF 
 
 TEACHING READING 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH S. TAYLOR, Pd.D. 
 
 /( 
 
 DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, NEW YORK 
 
 AUTHOR OF "ART OF CLASS MANAGEMENT AND DISCIPLINE" 
 
 "COMPOSITION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL," "WORD 
 
 STUDY IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL," "GRADED 
 
 MOVEMENT WRITING FOR BEGINNERS," ETC. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1912 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
\^ 
 
 v^/^C 
 
 Copyright, 1912, 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1912. 
 
 SToTbioolJ $utl8 
 
 J. S. Gushing Oo. —Berwick & Smith Co. 
 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
 s£aA31.G168 
 
PREFACE 
 
 An artistic reading teacher is one of the most 
 valuable assets of a school. She is as rare as 
 wisdom, which " the gold and the crystal can 
 not equal." Among a thousand instructors of 
 youth how few there be who are cunning in 
 the art of teaching beginners to read ! A prin- 
 cipal who possesses one of these rare treasures 
 can better afford to lose three capable assis- 
 tants from the top of the school than this one 
 at the bottom. It passes all understanding why 
 school authorities continue to give the greatest 
 rewards for the commonest of gifts and pro- 
 vide no encouragement for the rarest. If, by 
 any accident or effort or natural endowment, a 
 teacher becomes an artist in a first-year grade, 
 she can remain there only by sacrificing her 
 pecuniary interest. In consequence of the con- 
 ditions just mentioned, there is a steady exodus 
 from the lower to the higher grades. Thus the 
 principal is obliged to train large numbers of 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 raw recruits In low-grade work. The reading 
 problem is the most important and the most 
 difficult of all. A desire to contribute some 
 small share of inspiration and guidance for this 
 period of apprenticeship is responsible for the 
 appearance of the present volume. 
 
 The author has collected into convenient form 
 opinions, practices, principles, methods, devices, 
 and experimental discoveries, widely scattered in 
 books and periodicals, which, he ventures to 
 hope, will be useful to students of education as 
 well as to teachers in the service. The first 
 chapter deals with reading as a mental process. 
 It traces the various steps by which a child 
 learns to talk and shows that learning to read 
 is essentially a matter of association. The sec- 
 ond chapter analyzes the physiological factors 
 involved in oral and written speech and gives the 
 results of recent researches on eye movements 
 in reading. Chapter III formulates the prin- 
 ciples deduced from the studies of the first two 
 chapters. These principles are the raw material 
 of the reading method expounded in Chapter V. 
 In the fourth chapter the ends which the read- 
 ing teacher has in view in the several grades 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 of the school course are discussed. A sharp 
 distinction is made between the mechanics of 
 reading and reading as literature. Chapter V 
 presents the details of method in reading. It 
 undertakes to lay down the principles governing 
 the most approved current practice, and tells 
 the novice how to proceed in teaching sounds, 
 phonograms, blends, and sight words. It treats 
 reading under the dual aspect of impression and 
 expression, and sets forth the elements and 
 methods peculiar to each phase. The sixth 
 chapter presents the results of a study made 
 by the author on the amount of matter that 
 may profitably be read in each of the eight years 
 of an elementary school. The inferences are 
 based upon the experience of some seven hun- 
 dred teachers and about thirty thousand children. 
 This study is followed by a discussion of the 
 method of testing children in reading. The 
 next chapter gives a brief summary of the hy- 
 giene of reading, covering such items as paper, 
 type, line, lighting, eye strain, and home study. 
 A list of the authorities consulted in the prepa- 
 ration of the book concludes the volume. 
 The author gratefully acknowledges his in- 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 debtedness to Professor Robert MacDougall, of 
 New York University, for reading the manu- 
 script of the first two chapters and making valu- 
 able suggestions ; to Dr. Edgar Dubs Shimer, 
 District Superintendent of Schools, New York, 
 for reading a portion of the manuscript and 
 giving permission to quote from his personal 
 letters; to Educational Review for permission 
 to republish Chapter VI, which first appeared 
 in its columns; to Charles Scribner's Sons for 
 permission to reproduce an illustration from 
 Ladd and Woodworth's Elements of Physio- 
 logical Psychology ; and to Dr. J. McKeen 
 Cattell for permission to reproduce three charts 
 from Dearborn's Psychology of Reading. 
 
 JOSEPH S. TAYLOR. 
 New York, February i, 191 2. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Psychology of Reading 
 
 1 . Stages of Infantile Language 
 
 (i) The Emotional Stage 
 
 (fl) Importance of Gesture 
 
 (2) The Babbling Stage 
 
 (3) The Chattering Stage 
 
 (4) The Talking Stage . 
 
 2. Kinds of Words Used by Children 
 
 3. Number of Words Used by Children 
 
 4. Visual Language 
 
 5. Reading a Form of Association . 
 
 6. Laws of Association 
 
 (i) Recency . 
 
 (2) Frequency 
 
 (3) Vividness 
 
 (4) Congruity 
 
 (5) Interest . 
 
 (6) Voluntary Association 
 
 7. Illustration of the Process of Learning 
 
 8. Silent Reading . 
 
 (i) Mental Economy 
 (2) Increased Rapidity 
 
 to Read 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 2 
 2 
 3 
 
 5 
 8 
 8 
 
 9 
 II 
 12 
 
 14 
 18 
 18 
 18 
 18 
 19 
 19 
 20 
 21 
 
 25 
 
 28 
 33 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Physiology of Reading 38 
 
 1 . The Physical Basis of Association .... 38 
 
 2. Localization of Brain Functions 40 
 
 (i) Aphasias ........ 40 
 
 ix 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 3. The Physical Basis of a Word . 
 
 (i) How Words Get Recorded on the Brain 
 
 4. Physical Basis of the Meaning of Words . 
 
 5. The Relation of Left -and-Right-Handedness to Speech 53 
 
 6. Muscular Movement Involved in Reading 
 
 (i) The Eye Moves in Steps Across the Page 
 
 (2) Steps Vary in Size in the Same Individual 
 
 (3) Steps Vary in Different Individuals 
 
 (4) Children take More Steps Than Adults . 
 
 (5) Seeing Occurs During Pauses 
 
 (6) Letters Are Seen in Groups . 
 
 (7) Motor Images Also Represent Groups . 
 
 (8) Grouping is a Matter of Development 
 
 (9) The Eye Forms Short-Lived Motor Habits 
 
 (10) The Proper Length of Line and Size of Type 
 
 as Given by Dearborn 
 
 (11) The Unit of Apperception Varies 
 
 7. The Meaning of Words is Largely Motor 
 
 8. Posture of Pupil 
 
 PAGE 
 
 44 
 47 
 51 
 
 59 
 59 
 59 
 60 
 60 
 61 
 62 
 64 
 64 
 65 
 
 65 
 65 
 66 
 68 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Principles deduced from the Psychology and Physi- 
 ology OF Reading (22) 70 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Ends of Reading 77 
 
 I . . Twofold Aspect of Reading 'j'j 
 
 2. Primary Grades : The Mechanics of Reading . . TJ 
 
 (i) Instant Recognition of the Speaking Vocabulary 77 
 
 (2) Analysis of Words into Phonic Elements . . 78 
 
 (3) Recognition, Representation, and Pronunciation 
 
 of Phonic Elements . . . . .81 
 
 (4) Synthesis of Phonic Elements into Words . 83 
 
 (5) Meaning of Unfamiliar Words .... 84 
 
 (6) Spelling . ., 85 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS xi 
 
 Primary Grades : Reading as Literature 
 
 (i) What to Read 
 
 (a) Interest — Summary of Conclusions 
 (d) Other Qualities 
 
 (c) Adaptations .... 
 Grammar Grades : The Mechanics of Reading 
 
 (i) Supplementary Reading , 
 
 (a) Information .... 
 
 (d) Inspiration .... 
 (c) Taste 
 
 Grammar Grades : Reading as Literature . 
 
 (i) What to Read 
 
 The High School 
 
 8S 
 85 
 (II) 87 
 
 93 
 
 93 
 
 99 
 
 100 
 
 lOI 
 
 102 
 103 
 103 
 103 
 105 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Methods of Teaching Reading .... 
 
 1. The History of Method 
 
 (i) Reading Material 
 
 (2) Method 
 
 2. The Beginnings of Reading .... 
 
 (i) Some Definitions . . . . . 
 
 (2) Principles Governing the Selection of Sight 
 
 Words 
 
 (3) Principles Governing the Selection of Sounds 
 
 to be Taught 
 
 (4) Teaching Sight Words .... 
 
 (5) Teaching Sounds and Phonograms '. 
 
 (6) Teaching the Blend 
 
 (7) Correcting Errors 
 
 (8) A Device for Beginners .... 
 
 (i) Impression and Expression 
 
 (2) Lyrics (Primary) 
 
 (3) The Narrative Poem (Fourth Year) 
 
 (a) Lucy Gray 
 
 (4) The Total Impression 
 
 129 
 130 
 
 131 
 
 132 
 
 135 
 
xli TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (5) Word Study 136 
 
 (6) Grammar, Figures, Allusions . . . .138 
 
 (7) A Definite Aim 140 
 
 4. Reading as Expression . . . . . . 141 
 
 (i) Literature for the Ear 143 
 
 (2) High School Reading . . . . . 149 
 
 (3) S. H. Clark on Oral Reading . . . .150 
 
 (a) ^<9r^j ; get, hold, give the thought . 150 
 (J)) Grouping . . . . . • 151 
 (c) Sentences: the unit of a complete thought 151 
 {d) Subordination: an important principle 
 
 of art . . . . . • 151 
 
 {e) Transition . . . . . .152 
 
 (/") Emphasis : the exact meaning dependent 
 
 upon it 152 
 
 {g) Emotion (sympathetic) : imagine yourself 
 
 in a certain situation . . . -153 
 (K) Emotion (personal) : here the emotion is 
 
 real ... .... 153 
 
 (?■) Contrast: a principle of all art . -154 
 (7) Climax 154 
 
 5. Class Criticism of Oral Reading 154 
 
 (i) The Standard 155 
 
 (2) Who is to Criticise, and How? . . -157 
 
 6. Reading to Pupils ....... 158 
 
 7. Memorizing 159 
 
 8. Story Telling .162 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A Quantitative Study of Reading 165 
 
 1. The Unit 166 
 
 2. Number of Words Taught in First Year . . . 170 
 
 3. Total Amount Read , 171 
 
 4. The Books Used in Reading by Children . . .172 
 
 5. Reading to Pupils 177 
 
 6. Relation of Quantity, Quality, and Time . . . 181 
 
 7. Dramatization . ., .184 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Reading Test 191 
 
 1. Analysis of the Problem 192 
 
 (i) Amount 192 
 
 (2) Interpretation . 193 
 
 (3) Reading Aloud 193 
 
 (4) The Abstract 194 
 
 (5) The Dictionary Habit 195 
 
 2. A High Standard 195 
 
 3. Every Pupil Tested . 196 
 
 4. Relative Value of Reading 197 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Hygiene of Reading 199 
 
 1. Sufficient Light 199 
 
 2. Tinge and Surface of Paper . . . . . 202 
 
 3. Illustrations 204 
 
 4. Length of Line . 205 
 
 5. Size of Type . . 208 
 
 6. Eye-Strain 211 
 
 (i) Diseases of the Eye 212 
 
 (2) The School Doctor 214 
 
 (3) Home-Study 215 
 
 7. Literary Style 216 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Bibliography 221 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Topics for Discussion 226 
 
 Index . . , . . . . . . . . 233 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 1 . The " Signs " of Reading 
 
 2. The Process of Learning to Read 
 
 3. The Process of Learning to Read 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IS 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 4. Key to Strange Alphabet 
 
 5. Brain Localization . . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 22 
 43 
 
 6. Reading Pauses 
 
 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 7. Reading Pauses 
 
 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 8. Reading Pauses . . 
 g. A Page of the New England Primer 
 lo. Accommodation in Vision 
 
 
 
 
 
 62 
 III 
 212 
 
THE PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF 
 TEACHING READING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 
 
 Language is the joint product of heredity and 
 education. The child is born with certain instincts 
 which are the basis of linguistic development. We 
 may distinguish, among others, the following im- 
 pulses leading to speech : — 
 
 The Expressive Impulse, a tendency to embody 
 attitude or meaning in plastic or linguistic activities. 
 
 The Social Impulse, the tendency to exhibit such 
 expression to an appreciative audience. Professor 
 Dewey calls this the "greatest of all educational 
 resources." ^ 
 
 The Imitative Impulse, the tendency to imitate 
 Knguistic sounds. Primarily this is not voluntary 
 or telic imitation, but is largely reflex. 
 
 1 The School and Society, John Dewey, University of Chicago Press, 
 1899, p. 58- 
 
 B I 
 
2 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 The Play Impulse, Or the tendency to vary and 
 extend speech sounds in an experimental way for 
 amusement. 
 
 The kind of sounds a child finally adopts as his 
 language depends upon his environment. Imita- 
 tion is the controlling factor here. This is the case 
 even among the lower animals. "So inadequate," 
 says Tracy/ "is heredity alone, that the child will 
 not learn the language of its parents unless he be in 
 the society of those who employ it. If brought up 
 among savages, he will speak their language; if 
 among wolves, he will howl." Alfred Russell Wal- 
 lace says, "Young birds never have the song peculiar 
 to their species, if they have not heard it ; whereas 
 they acquire very easily the song of any other bird 
 with which they are associated." ^ ' 
 
 I. Stages of Infantile Language. — Various stages 
 in the development of language may be distinguished 
 as follows : (i) The Emotional Stage, (2) The Bab- 
 bUng Stage, (3) The Chattering Stage, (4) The Talk- 
 ing Stage. 
 
 (i) The Emotional Stage. — The child comes into 
 the world with a cry of pain. The cry is his only 
 
 1 The Psychology of Childhood, Frederick Tracy, D. C. Heath & Co., 
 p. 117. ^ Natural Selection. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 3 
 
 language, and is used for the expression of his feelings. 
 A little later this cry is differentiated into several 
 varieties, such as the voice of anger, the wail of 
 disappointment, and the cry of physical pain. Fur- 
 ther on come cries, screams, gurglings, and cooings 
 indicative of energy, pleasure, or contentment. 
 Children only a few months old are sensitive to the 
 emotional expressions of others. The tone of the 
 voice will soothe or irritate, exhilarate or depress 
 them. The emotional language which thus serves 
 to establish an understanding between a mother and 
 her child is one of the beautiful mysteries of mother- 
 hood. Thus the emotional language gradually ap- 
 proaches the intellectual stage. The child learns to 
 vary his grunts and squeals and cries and coos so as 
 to express fear, surprise, desire, satisfaction, assent, 
 question. Another element of fundamental impor- 
 tance is now added to the linguistic outfit in the form 
 of gesture to accompany the voice. 
 
 {a) Importance of Gesture. — By means of tone, 
 emphasis, inflection, and gesture, the child manages 
 to express nearly all his feelings, ideas, and wishes 
 before he has learned a single word ; and by the same 
 means he interprets to a considerable extent the 
 feehngs and wishes of others. Throughout hfe the 
 
4 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 same vocal elements and gesture remain as vital 
 auxiliaries of speech. Few of us realize how much 
 gesture enters into the personality and language of 
 people, especially of people who have no written 
 language ; but even among the civilized, whole races 
 are characterized by the number and varieties of 
 their gestures. It is almost impossible to imagine 
 a non-gesticulating Frenchman. It has been said 
 of the Arabs that they more than double the mean- 
 ing of their words by the piquancy of their gestures. 
 Delsarte analyzed speech into three elements, — 
 voice, gesture, articulation. Voice (inflection), he 
 says, is the language of the sensitive nature, or physi- 
 cal life ; gesture is the language of emotion ; articu- 
 lation is the language of reason. "In considering 
 the two languages of emotion, the verbal and the 
 pantomimic, the latter is revelatory of the true man ; 
 while the verbal is more or less artificial. It takes 
 many words to say what a single look reveals. 
 Gesture is the lightning, speech the thunder. . . . 
 Gesture shows the emotional condition from which 
 the words flow, and justifies them." ^ 
 
 Gesture language, however, is not limited to the 
 expression of emotion. It is employed both by the 
 
 1 Delsarte System of Expression, Genevieve Stebbins, N. Y., 1889, p. 170. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 5 
 
 child and by primitive man to convey knowledge. 
 Tyler says that the language of gesture is about 
 the same all over the world. "Mallery brought to- 
 gether some Utah Indians and a deaf mute, who 
 gave them a long account of a marauding expedition, 
 followed by a dialogue ; they understood each other 
 perfectly. . . . The language of analytical gesture 
 is thus a substitute for spoken language; ... its 
 syntax resembles that of deaf-mutes." ^ 
 
 (2) The Babbling Stage. — After the instinctive 
 utterances already mentioned comes a period of 
 babbling, when the child uses his vocal organs as a 
 plaything. This stage occurs in the second and 
 third quarters of the first year. Nature impels the 
 child to exercise his vocal powers as a preparation 
 for speech-learning. In a random (purposeless) 
 way he will thus make nearly every sound in lan- 
 guage over and over again. The babbling does not 
 take the place of the earlier mode of expression, but 
 is added to it. Toward the end of the first year, 
 after a child has made coimtless random sounds, he 
 has a stock of motor images of vocal utterance that 
 enables him to reproduce the sounds he hears in a 
 
 ^ The Evolution of General Ideas, Th. Ribot, The Open Court Publish- 
 ing Co., 1899, p. SI. 
 
6 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 semi-reflex way. The following illustration of the 
 babbling age is taken from my diary of a little girl. 
 On the first anniversary of her birth I find this 
 record : — 
 
 "Constantly babbling." 
 
 " Understands — ' Give me a kiss ' ; ' Go to Papa ' ; 
 *Go to Mamma' ; 'How tall is K. ?'" 
 
 At the age of one year and twenty-one days this 
 entry was made : — 
 
 "Is making rapid progress in the understanding of 
 language. The following expressions are under- 
 stood : — 
 
 "'Get your stocking/ 'Bring Mamma your shoe/ 
 'Give it to Papa/ 'K. dance/ 'Take your doll and 
 lie down/ ' Give that to Julia ' (she had torn a piece 
 of paper off the shelf cover; her mother said, 'Now 
 go and give that to Julia.' She marched off to the 
 dining room and held the paper up to Julia) ; 
 'Where's the baby?' 'Put your hand through the 
 hole.' (This in dressing.)" 
 
 Up to this point she had used very few words of 
 her own. Comprehension of language precedes use. 
 Most of her utterances up to the age of one year 
 were of the babbling kind, such as the following, 
 recorded on the three hundred and fourth day : — 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 7 
 
 "Gaa-gaa, etc. 
 
 "Daa-daa, etc. 
 
 "Baba. 
 
 "Baby. 
 
 "Gut-tha (th=as in the). 
 
 "A-a-a-a-a- (with an accent on each). 
 
 "Ta-ta (long sustained, with varying pitch)." 
 
 Out of the spontaneous babbHng grows the no 
 less spontaneous imitation of sounds. Instead of re- 
 peating chance sounds, he now imitates nearly every 
 sound he hears. This phase is illustrated by the 
 following record of K. : — 
 
 ^^ Thirteen months. — To-day K. said 'apple.' She 
 also says 'good, good,' and something that sounds 
 like 'Julia' without the J." 
 
 During the fourteenth month these expressions 
 are found : — 
 
 "Boy" and "bow-wow." 
 
 "Dicken" for "chicken." 
 
 "Thank you" (without the th). 
 
 "Tries to hum a tune that Julia sings, and succeeds 
 in making out enough of the air to distinguish it 
 plainly." 
 
 "She attempts to say almost everything now, and 
 is constantly chattering." 
 
8 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 (3) The Chattering Stage. — And thus we have 
 reached the third, or word-learning, stage of Hnguis- 
 tic progress. Kirkpatrick says this phase may begin 
 in the first year, but is not usually very marked till 
 the last half of the second year. In the case of K. 
 the point was reached at the very threshold of the 
 second year. In the beginning, names are learned 
 by associating the sound with the object, quality, 
 or act denoted. In every case the association is 
 assisted by circumstances, such as gesture, facial 
 expression, inflection of the voice, and the like. The 
 words that a child uses at this time frequently stand 
 for phrases or entire sentences. Only that portion 
 of a thought that needs special emphasis is ex- 
 pressed in words. All the rest is understood from 
 such auxiliaries of speech as tone, inflection, gesture, 
 the presence of the object, and the performance of 
 an act. For instance, K. says, "Up! " when she 
 desires to be lifted; "Down!" when she wants to 
 get off your lap. "Dinne" means "I want my 
 dinner." " Dinna yedda " means " Dinner is ready." 
 
 (4) The Talking Stage. — This is the last, or sen- 
 tence-making, epoch of language acquisition. Prog- 
 ress from the preceding stage consists in substituting 
 words for what was previously indicated or under- 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING g 
 
 stood by tone or gesture ; and also in a better mental 
 grasp of the relations of different parts of speech, and 
 of words that express these relations. For in- 
 stance, when K. was a year and a half old, she used 
 this sentence: "Give me ga!" meaning "Give me 
 the glass." This is a complete sentence containing 
 a verb, and is one of the very earliest uses of the 
 personal pronoun of the first person. When, about 
 the same time, she was dressed ready to go for a 
 walk, she said, " Come on! " When she was through 
 with her dinner she called out, "I done." Even 
 subjective expressions denoting emotions begin thus 
 early by imitation, perhaps sometimes without full 
 comprehension. Thus K. at the end of eighteen 
 months brought her little bath-tub into my study 
 one day and tried to sit down in it. She failed and 
 nearly fell over, then she walked away, exclaiming, 
 "0 dea!" On another occasion she expressed sur- 
 prise by saying, "Doodness " (goodness). 
 
 2. Kinds of Words used by Children. — As to the 
 kind of words a child naturally learns first, Tracy 
 has collected important information.- He gives a 
 summary of the vocabularies of a number of children 
 
 ^ The Psychology of Childhood, Frederick Tracy, Heath & Co., 1896, 
 p. 117. 
 
lo THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 under three years of age, comprising five thousand, 
 four hundred words. Of these — 
 60 per cent are nouns. 
 20 per cent are verbs. 
 9 per cent are adjectives. 
 5 per cent are adverbs. 
 2 per cent are prepositions. 
 2 per cent are pronouns. 
 1.7 per cent are interjections. 
 0.3 per cent are conjunctions. 
 Professor Kirkpatrick ^ has determined that of 
 the words in the EngKsh language as foimd in a dic- 
 tionary — 
 
 60 per cent are nouns. 
 II per cent are verbs. 
 22 per cent are adjectives. 
 5.5 per cent are adverbs. 
 From this it appears that the number of verbs em- 
 ployed by a child is relatively larger than the num- 
 ber he employs in adult life. It must also be remem- 
 bered that a child imitates movements before sounds, 
 and expresses many actions by gesture rather than 
 by words. Furthermore many words used by a 
 child that have the appearance of other parts of 
 
 ^ Tracy, op. cit., p. 146. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING ii 
 
 speech are in reality verbs (or at least embody ac- 
 tion-ideas). Thus in the case of K., "up" meant 
 "Please take me up"; "down" meant "I want 
 to get off your knee"; "dink" meant "I want a 
 drink of water." With these allowances made, it 
 is evident that the verbs in a child's early vocabu- 
 lary are relatively much more numerous than the 
 table would indicate, and possibly three or four 
 times as numerous as in the case of adult language. 
 
 These facts confirm all other studies of children 
 as showing the importance of motor activity and the 
 motor idea in primary education. 
 
 3. The Number of Words used by Children. — It is 
 said that children rarely learn to walk and to talk 
 at the same time. Walking usually precedes talk- 
 ing. Hence language-learning is not prominent till 
 after the middle of the second year. "At two years 
 of age a child's vocabulary may not exceed a score 
 of words ; but is likely to number frorii two to four 
 hundred and may reach the surprising figure of ten 
 or fifteen hundred." ^ Between two and four, prog- 
 ress in acquiring new words is usually somewhat 
 irregular. After a child has learned to read with 
 
 ^ E. A. Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Stvdy, Macmillan, 1903, 
 p. 232. 
 
12 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 some facility, a desire to know what is in books 
 affords a powerful stimulus for the acquisition of 
 new words. Kirkpatrick says a thousand new words 
 a year would be a low estimate for a youth, and ac- 
 cording to his investigations a high school graduate 
 may know the meaning of twenty or thirty thousand 
 words. 
 
 4. Visual Language. — Thus far we have consid- 
 ered the psychology of heard and spoken language 
 prior to the school age. We have, in other words, 
 tried to represent in psychological terms the linguis- 
 tic condition of the child when he presents himself 
 in school for the purpose of learning how to compre- 
 hend language through the eye and how to express 
 it through the hand. The common names of the 
 two new processes are reading and writing. 
 
 There is a vast difference between oral language 
 and visual language. Oral speech is a fundamental 
 psychological and physiological fact. No speech- 
 less race of men has yet been found. The human 
 spirit shows in the faculty of speech a limitless power 
 of creation. The so-called " bow-wow " theory of the 
 origin of language (phonetic imitations of natural 
 sounds) is discounted by the fact that words in differ- 
 ent languages representing the same thing are different. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 13 
 
 Between man and every other animal the gift of 
 speech puts an immeasurable distance. "Our rever- 
 ence for the nobiHty of manhood," observes Huxley, 
 "will not be lessened by the knowledge that man is 
 in substance and in structure one with the brutes, 
 for he alone possesses the marvelous endowment of 
 intelligent and rational speech. Thus he stands as 
 on a mountain top far above the level of his humble 
 fellows and transfigured from his lower nature, by 
 reflecting here and there a ray from the infinite 
 source of truth." ^ 
 
 These remarks apply, however, only to spoken 
 language. Visual language is purely conventional, 
 and is possessed only by civilized or semi-civilized 
 peoples. It is not the direct outcome of the instinc- 
 tive impulses from which spoken language is devel- 
 oped. If visual speech were governed by instincts 
 as potent as those of oral speech, the child would 
 learn to read spontaneously. Neither has. the neces- 
 sity of communication much force in the case of 
 reading, for the child already has an easy and ade- 
 quate means of expression in his oral language. 
 About the only instincts that the reading teacher can 
 at first appeal to effectively are the play instinct and 
 
 ^ Man's Place in Nature, Thomas Huxley, pp. 119, 132. 
 
14 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 the social desire for approbation. Hence progress 
 in visual language, even with a teacher, is much 
 slower for a time than progress in learning oral lan- 
 guage without any formal teaching. 
 
 5. Reading a Form of Association. — When a child 
 enters school he has already acquired the use of oral 
 language. This means that he has associated with 
 his concepts certain sounds which we call oral words, 
 and certain muscular images of the vocal organs as 
 these are employed in uttering words. These three 
 things, the auditory image, the motor image, and the 
 concept, are so indissolubly associated that any one 
 is usually sufficient to call up the other two without 
 conscious effort. Learning to read as a mental pro- 
 cess is nothing more than the introduction of an 
 additional factor into this group of associations in 
 the form of a visual image, which we call the written 
 or printed word. The four factors have been called 
 the "signs" ^ employed in reading. The accom- 
 panying diagram illustrates graphically the relation 
 of these signs. 
 
 Since reading is essentially a matter of association, 
 we shall have to ascertain next what psychology has 
 
 ^Psychology in the Schoolroom, Dexter and Garlick, Longmans, 
 Green & Co., 1898, p. 126. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 
 
 IS 
 
 to tell us about that process. Association is an in- 
 stance of the great law of nervous habit. Things 
 repeated in the same order tend to unroll themselves 
 
 VISXIALSIGN 
 
 ~ THBWORD -*< 
 
 DOG 
 
 VOCAL SIGN 
 
 POSITION OF 
 
 ORGANSOrSPEHH 
 
 AUDITORY SIGN 
 
 SOUND OF 
 
 WORD DOG 
 
 MMENTAL5IGN 
 THECONCEfT 
 
 Fig. I. 
 Adapted from Dexter and Garlick's Psychology in the Schoolroom. 
 
 again automatically, as, for instance, the nonsense 
 rhymes used by children in counting off — 
 
 ^' Ana mana mona mike 
 Barcelona bona strike" ^ 
 
 . If you have ever been out in the deep snow, you 
 
 ^ Many ideas and illustrations of association given here are borrowed 
 from William James, The Principles of Psychology, Holt & Co., 1893, 
 Vol. I, Chap. XIV. 
 
1 6 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 know the difference between following the beaten 
 path and making a new one. Nervous impulses 
 have the same experience in getting themselves prop- 
 agated through the central nervous system. They 
 always tend to discharge themselves in the direction 
 of least resistance; and this is the beaten path. 
 Association is the psychological effect "of the physi- 
 cal fact that nerve currents propagate themselves 
 through those tracts of conduction which have been 
 most in use." If we think of the cause, we call the 
 process habit; if we think of the effect, we call it 
 association. 
 
 The laws of association are sometimes distin- 
 guished to the number of three or four, but it is prob- 
 able that all might be reduced to two — contiguity 
 and similarity. If certain objects or events are ex- 
 perienced in the same place or at the same time, and 
 one of the group is reproduced at a subsequent time, 
 the rest of the group tend to reappear, also. In the 
 same way, objects that resemble each other tend to 
 reappear together, even though the two were never ex- 
 perienced together before. Referring to our reading 
 diagram, we may say that if the visual sign, the vocal 
 sign, the auditory sign, and the concept or image 
 have been simultaneously in consciousness often 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 17 
 
 enough, any one will be sufficient to recall the re- 
 maining three. Or, in other words, if the written 
 word, the spoken word, and the heard word have 
 been perfectly associated with the idea that they 
 all express, the idea will recall all the modes of expres- 
 sion, and the three forms of the word will each recall 
 the idea. " A child who comes across a difficult word 
 {e.g. hippopotamus) has merely a more or less im- 
 perfect visual sign. This does not call up any vocal 
 (or motor) sign (he cannot say the word) ; it does 
 not call up any auditory sign (he is unaware whether 
 another scholar does or does not pronounce the word 
 correctly). It is needless to say that no mental 
 sign is called up (the word has no meaning to him). 
 A child who can read a given word (e.g. emu), but 
 does not know its meaning, is able to call up all the 
 signs except the mental one. The whole art of read- 
 ing aloud correctly and intelligently consists in being 
 able to reproduce all these signs simultaneously." ^ 
 If we meet a familiar face on the street, or a familiar 
 flower or bird in the field, but cannot remember the 
 name of the friend or object, then we have the mental 
 sign, but lack all the others. In reading we look at 
 words and endeavor to make out their meaning. In 
 
 1 Dexter and Garlick, op. cit., p. 126. 
 
1 8 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 composition we have meaning and try to find words 
 to embody it. The two processes are complementary 
 to each other. And in order to form deep and last- 
 ing associations between the words and their mean- 
 ing, reading and writing should go hand in hand. 
 
 6. Laws of Association. — Certain mental factors 
 are important in determining the predominant ele- 
 ments of association and influencing the direction of 
 the mental movement. These factors, which give 
 rise to the various phases of association known as 
 laws of similarity, contrast, etc., are as follows : — 
 
 (i) Recency. — Other things being equal, the ex- 
 perience that is most recent is likely to determine 
 the course of mental movement. If I sit down in 
 idle meditation after an exciting day's work or pleas- 
 ure, my revery is likely to be occupied with the 
 scenes through which I have recently passed. 
 
 (2) Frequency. — To the preceding factors must 
 also be added the frequency of connection between 
 the presentations that are associated. If "a" has 
 been associated with "Z>" twice and "c" but once, 
 other things being equal, "a" is a better clew for the 
 recallof "Z)" than"c"is. 
 
 (3) Vividness. — The intensity of the first impres- 
 sion also is an important factor of the subsequent 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 
 
 19 
 
 recall. This may depend on the nature of the stimu- 
 lus, as a portentous sound, or my interest in the sub- 
 ject, or the emotion accompanying the impression. 
 If you have ever witnessed a railroad accident, all 
 accounts of such accidents will thereafter make a 
 deep impression upon you. If you have ever visited 
 the Palace of Versailles, any subsequent reference 
 to Marie Antoinette will excite a lively interest. 
 The art of creating vividness in teaching, therefore, 
 would seem to consist in connecting your instruc- 
 tion with some significant experience of the pupil. 
 
 (4) Congruity. — A fourth element is what James 
 calls the congruity of the emotional tone of an im- 
 pression and our mood. If ^p\x are in good spirits, 
 a funny story makes a stronger impression upon you 
 than it would if you were sad. If the mood and the 
 emotion are of tt^same tone, they support each 
 other. If they are opposite in character, they tend 
 to annihilate each other. 4Bhus, an interesting novel 
 has small charms for a man who is seasick. 
 
 (5) Interest. — That in which we are most inter- 
 ested makes the deepest impression on our minds 
 and is most likely to abide. Just as in logl^ing ^p, 
 landscape certain features are picked out for atten- 
 tion, while others are ignored, so in recalling objects 
 
20 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 and events, there is an unconscious partiality in the 
 selection of elements, which in time changes the ob- 
 ject. This is why a great man seems greater after 
 death than before. In recalling him after he is gone, 
 we are prone to dwell on his good qualities and to 
 forget his frailties. In the course of time our idea 
 of the man is transformed. Washington is already 
 a demigod; Lincoln is fast becoming one. While 
 they lived they were vilified as much as any living 
 public man of to-day. 
 
 (6) Voluntary Association. — All the association 
 thus far spoken of is involuntary. This is very im- 
 portant and all-potent with young children. But 
 thinking may be defined as (fontroUed or voluntary 
 association. In reverv and in memory association 
 takes place in accoraance wfth its own l^ws. In 
 studying and thinking we maldpa conscious effort 
 to vivify and intensify some one element above 
 others, and in this way tie determine the direction 
 of the next associations. The skill of a teacher is 
 shown by her ability to keep children in the control 
 of their associations. When they lose this control, 
 t^Pfeay tjlipir minds wander, or they are not paying 
 attention. They are paying attention, but not to 
 the teacher. Their mental movement is revery, and 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 21 
 
 they sit and inwardly gaze at a panorama of imagery. 
 The associations control them. Their eyes and ears 
 are wide open, but they see and hear nothing. When 
 they control their mental movements, the associa- 
 tions follow the words of the teacher, and all else is 
 suppressed. 
 
 7. Illustration of the Process of Learning to Read. — 
 James defines reading, psychologically, as "an inter- 
 rupted and protracted recall of sounds by sights 
 ^ich have always been coupled with them in the 
 past." ^ This definition is incomplete, inasmuch 
 as it leaves out two important elements of a com- 
 plete process of reading, — the motor image and the 
 conceptual element. As a matter of fact, it de- 
 scribes a good deal of so-called reading, which con- 
 sists simply in converting sight-symbols into sound- 
 symbols, with little or no appreciation of the meaning 
 of what is read. The pronunciation of a series of words 
 in a foreign language of whose meaning one is wholly 
 ignorant would satisfy every demand of the defini- 
 tion. The various elements of the complex experi- 
 ence for which a word stands may of course be 
 excited in unequal degrees, but each element is suffi- 
 cient ordinarily to excite all the rest in some degree. 
 
 10^. «7., p. 557. 
 
22 THE PRINCIPLES OF lEACHING READING 
 
 When one is simply glancing over a page in so- 
 called silent reading, the vocal element seems to be 
 
 missing, but experi- 
 ment proves that it 
 is quite impossible 
 to suppress the 
 motor images of 
 words, and even the 
 actual movements 
 of the vocal coiAl 
 Children and unedu- 
 cated persons usu- 
 ally pronounce all 
 the words, even when they read for themselve*lone; 
 and in cases where muscular movements cannot be de- 
 tected by ordinary observation or by consciousness, 
 their presence is revealed by delicate instruments. In 
 
 * Following is a key to the characters used in Figs. 2 and 3 : — 
 
 
 
 1. J 
 
 1. LE > 
 3. LJV 
 if . D E 1 
 5.>0Q 
 6. r 
 
 7. 
 
 r 
 
 >nO J LE> 
 
 8. 
 
 r 
 
 >Da J LJV 
 
 7. 
 
 r 
 
 >DD J DEI 
 
 Fig. 
 
 isi 
 
 b 
 
 c 
 
 d 
 
 e 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 h 
 
 i 
 
 . J 
 
 .k 
 
 .1 
 
 • 
 
 n 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 .P 
 
 ."! 
 
 r 
 
 • 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 
 
 23 
 
 fact, as a clew for revival, the motor element in 
 the association of a word complex seems to me 
 to be the most potent of all. This conclusion 
 is confirmed by experiments on memory with 
 and without motor 
 
 HELL 
 
 UECU 
 
 I. J 
 
 i.nj> 
 
 3.UJVD nj> J 3ELL 
 
 V;ujvq nj> J urvv< 
 
 6". UJVO nj> J UEEU 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 images. 
 
 In order to ob- 
 serve, if possible, 
 what happens in the 
 mind when one is 
 learning to read, let 
 us take the unfa- 
 miliar symbols in 
 the diagram (Fig. 2). 
 Suppose we say that 
 no. I represents the word a, no. 2 represents the 
 word cow, no. 3 represents cat, no. 4 is dog, no. 
 5 is see, no. 6 is /. Then see how much time 
 and effort are required to read the sentences 
 numbered 7, 8, 9. Make a similar experiment 
 with Fig. 3. The oral words or auditory symbols 
 are all familiar and thoroughly associated with 
 the mental signs or meanings that they represent, 
 and also with the motor images (vocal signs) of oral 
 expression. 
 
24 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 What we have now to do is to introduce and incor- 
 porate these visual signs with the three other signs 
 already established in our mental experience. The 
 more manifold we make the clews that radiate from 
 our new symbol, the greater will be the chance of 
 recalling the group of which it forms a part. If we 
 associate the visual sign with the vocal sign only, 
 as, for instance, in learning to pronounce a foreign 
 word of whose meaning we are ignorant, it would 
 require a great many repetitions to insure its auto- 
 matic recall. If we add to the vocal, sign the mental 
 sign, we increase the chances of recall by connect- 
 ing more of our experience with the new symbol. If 
 to the mental sign we add the actual presentation, 
 as, for example, a real cow, or a model or a picture of 
 a cow, the total experience is further enriched and 
 deepened by interest and other emotions, all of 
 which constitute clews of recall. By an appeal to 
 a child's love of muscular and play activity, the ex- 
 perience may become stO more significant. This 
 could be done by having the word printed on a card 
 and kept in a box with other words, then, on exhibit- 
 ing an object or picture, calling upon the pupil to 
 select the word that represents the object. Fi- 
 nally, one of the most powerful of clews is the muscu- 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 25 
 
 lar image of writing the word after it is known. It 
 is evident, therefore, that whatever reading may be 
 as a complete process, teaching a child to read is a 
 good deal more than converting sights into sounds. 
 
 8. Silent Reading. — The principle enunciated 
 above, that the more manifold we make the clews 
 that radiate from the visual symbol, when the child 
 is learning to read, the more efficacious will be our 
 teaching, has been disputed by some authorities. 
 For instance, Mr. M. V. O'Shea^ says that in 
 reading, the auditory and vocal processes should be 
 reduced to a minimum. He admits that we have to 
 deal with the original tendency to interpret visual 
 verbal forms through auditory and vocal forms; 
 that these processes are probably never completely 
 short-circuited; and that they continue as a sort of 
 " interior " speech. But he thinks it highly important 
 to develop in the pupil the habit of reading rapidly 
 and getting his cue as to meaning principally through 
 the eye. Rapid interpretation rather than correct 
 pronunciation is the prime test of successful reading. 
 Huey^ goes a step farther, and says it is not nec- 
 
 ^ Linguistic Development and Education, The Macmillan Co., 1907, 
 p. 223. 
 
 ' The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, The Macmillan Co., 1908, 
 P- 349- 
 
26 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 essary for a child to pronounce correctly or to pro- 
 nounce at all, at first, the new words. If he grasps 
 approximately the total meaning of a sentence in 
 which the new word stands, he has read the sentence. 
 Even if the child substitutes words of his own for 
 some that are in the book, the reading should be 
 approved. He also says in another connection that 
 "a purely visual reader is not an impossibility"; 
 but admits that practically he has never found the 
 purely visual type. Speaking on the point under 
 discussion. Dr. Edgar Dubs Shimer, a keen psycholo- 
 gist and joint author of The Progressive Road to 
 Reading,^ wrote me privately the following exposition 
 of his theory of mental economy in learning to 
 read : ^ — 
 
 "I am seeking to keep the reality images (mean- 
 ings, ideas, concepts) in the focus of consciousness, 
 and all other images in subconsciousness. If the 
 visual can be so vividly associated with the reality 
 image that the latter is evoked immediately without 
 interpolation of the vocal, the pupil will read with 
 power as compared with the one who must take an 
 indirect course from the visual to the vocal, and 
 
 ^ Silver, Burdett & Co., New York, 1909. 
 
 2 Dr. Shimer has kindly permitted me to quote from this correspond- 
 ence. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 27 
 
 then perhaps even to the auditory, before reaching 
 securely the reaHty image. The methods in the 
 Progressive Road make for proper condensation 
 in the association series. This is the secret of the 
 supplementary stories for seat work. You know 
 how difficult it is to arouse a reality image by a 
 visual word image alone. In some cases it may be 
 necessary that the vocal motor, or the auditory, or 
 even both be aroused in order to bring the reality 
 image into being. The superfluous associations of 
 vocal and auditory images I desire to suppress, unless 
 they really contribute to establish or make clear the 
 reality image. Some teachers think that when a 
 child has read an action sentence and then per- 
 formed the proper action, the silent reading shows 
 that a direct association was made between the vis- 
 ible symbol and the meaning. I need not tell you 
 that ninety-nine times out of a hundred the visible 
 symbols led to their vocal motor and auditory word 
 images before the reality was reached. All I want 
 to insist upon is that economy of effort and increase 
 of power are secured by making the path from visual 
 symbol to the idea as direct as possible. If it can 
 be done, let the agglutination of the visible symbol 
 with the reality be so close that no other word image 
 
28 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 can be interpolated. . . . The only way I have 
 found to acccompHsh this has been to supply choice 
 and appropriate text for reading adapted to the 
 child's interest, and to try through this intense in- 
 terest to provide opportunity for the visual symbol 
 to make by degrees for itself the same swift, imme- 
 diate, and indissoluble association with the reality 
 that the spoken word has. . . . Some one has well 
 said that words are like panes of glass, to be looked 
 through, not to be looked at." 
 
 The proposal to inhibit the vocal image raises a 
 very serious question. In favor of inhibition is 
 cited an assumed economy of mental activity and an 
 alleged increase of rapidity in silent reading. Let 
 us examine these arguments and see what they prove. 
 
 (i) Mental Economy. — Is it true that the direct 
 and single association (if such were possible) be- 
 tween the visual word image and its meaning saves 
 the mind useless labor ? When the child is learning 
 oral speech, we have already seen that instinct impels 
 him to imitate every sound he hears, both before 
 and after he attaches meaning to sounds. Nature 
 in this case does not stop with the mere association 
 of sound and sense, but causes every sound to seek 
 immediate expression. Speech at this stage is a 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 29 
 
 sort of reflex mechanism, and every sound stimulus 
 runs through Broca's Convolution to the mouth. 
 From the point of view of development, expression 
 seems to be an indispensable link in the chain of 
 association. What a child hears he utters; what 
 he knows he tells. When he has no companions, he 
 talks to himself or his toys. Ideas that flit across 
 his mind invariably seek outlet through some form 
 of expression. So it appears that nature finds it 
 impossible to educate a child without language; and 
 language means commxmion, — giving as well as 
 receiving ideas. Has not one of the most serious 
 charges brought against the school of the past and 
 present been this : — that it is organized chiefly for 
 listening; that it requires the child to be in a pas- 
 sive, receptive attitude, whereas he never individu- 
 alizes himself until he acts or expresses himself 
 through the muscular system? Why, then, if ex- 
 pression is so necessary, should an exception be made 
 in the case of reading? Why should a chfld try to 
 inhibit vocal utterance when nature seems to urge 
 him to practise it? "A series of experiments," says 
 Colvin, "recently concluded by the Department of 
 Psychology at the University of Illinois, in which 
 about eighty school chfldren were tested, seems defi- 
 
30 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 nitely to show that learnmg for all grades is consid- 
 erably facilitated by allowing pupils to study in a 
 whisper." ^ In a monograph on "ideational types," 
 containing a series of original experiments and a 
 review of ten well-known studies on the same theme, 
 Mr. William Parker Wharton comes to this conclu- 
 sion: "In the presentation of material by visual, 
 auditory, visual-motor, visual-auditory, and audi- 
 tory-motor methods, the best results, for correct, 
 orderly reproduction by primary memory, are ob- 
 tained by the visual-motor (articulatory) method, 
 and the poorest by the purely acoustic method." ^ 
 Dr. Shimer himself witnesses to the fact that, ninety- 
 nine times out of a hundred, the vocal image is pres- 
 ent; and experimental study in the laboratory 
 proves that it is absolutely impossible to inhibit the 
 muscular movement of speech when we think. In 
 short, words are essentially motor.^ As soon as they 
 appear in consciousness, they fly to the lips. There 
 are, of course, types of mind in which the visual, the 
 
 ^ The Learning Process, S. S. Colvin, The Macmillan Co., 1911, p. 168. 
 
 ^ Experimental Study of Ideational Types, William Parker Wharton, 
 Thesis for Doctorate in Philosophy, New York University, 191 1. 
 
 ' "The printed or written word is a symbol not of an idea, but of a 
 spoken word. The normal process of interpretation seems, therefore, 
 to be from the printed word to the spoken word, and thence to the ' idea.' ' ' 
 — The Educative Process, W. C. Bagley, The Macmillan Co., 1905, p. 318. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 
 
 31 
 
 auditory, or the motor element predominates; but 
 in no case is it possible to eliminate muscular images 
 of expression from our thinking. Why, then, should 
 we try? Goethe has well said: "What you do not 
 speak of, you will seldom accurately think of." 
 But while I doubt the validity of Dr. Shimer's ex- 
 planation, I am a firm believer in the efficacy of his 
 method. The economy which results from his in- 
 tensely interesting subject-matter comes, in my judg- 
 ment, from the vividness of the impression. Other 
 things being equal, memory bears a direct ratio to 
 the strength of the stimulus. If you come across 
 a strange word, like aphasia, in the course of a day's 
 desultory reading, you may not remember the term 
 ten minutes later; but if the same word happens 
 to be the name of the disease that suddenly over- 
 took your father this morning at nine o'clock, you 
 are not likely to forget it as long as you live. The 
 stories in the Progressive Road are so closely 
 fitted to the mind and heart of a child that he is 
 eager to read them; and he spontaneously makes 
 the effort to overcome difficulties, which in some 
 reading systems must be mastered by dull routine. 
 To quote Goethe once more: "In every new de- 
 partment one must, in the first place, begin again 
 
32 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACfflNG READING 
 
 as a child, throw a passionate interest over thie sub- 
 ject ; take pleasure in the shell till one has the happi- 
 ness to arrive at the kernel." Now, the mechanics 
 of reading are the shell, and the passionate interest 
 a child has in the right kuid of subject-matter en- 
 ables him to take pleasure in the shell while he is 
 looking for the kernel. And in this procedure there 
 is mental economy, because the activity is spontane- 
 ous, and without a sense of effort or fatigue. In the 
 words of John Dewey we may say that reading has 
 become a means of self-expression. 
 ^ From further correspondence had with Dr. Shimer 
 it appears that so far as the actual procedure of 
 teaching is concerned, he lays as much stress upon 
 multiple-sense appeal, and especially upon motor 
 experience, as I do. For example, he says: "The 
 teacher's real work [is] truly along your lines of pro- 
 cedure, . . . and I refer again to the Manual of 
 Progressive Road to show that not an avenue of 
 approach [is] neglected. Not only the auditory and 
 the vocal, but the manual and visual (including the 
 purely retinal and the oculo-motor) [are] used in 
 conjunctions of all possible varieties that the occa- 
 sion [demands]. From the very start phonics [re- 
 ceive] due emphasis in clear articulation and enun- 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 33 
 
 ciation, so that correct sound values [may] be se- 
 cured from all. Then there [is] gradual addition 
 of phonetics in which the phonic values [are] attached 
 to the visible phonetic symbol. Oculo-motor and 
 manual-motor exercises [help] to clinch. . . . When 
 I wrote to you I did not think it necessary to establish 
 my entire doctrine, and may have dwelt unduly on 
 this phase of finally establishing in the pupil's pro- 
 gressive efforts, not a short-circuit, — this figure is 
 misleading, — but an automatic subconscious slide 
 from visible symbol to thought, so swift that only 
 the starting-point and the goal would be high in 
 clear consciousness." 
 
 (2) Increased Rapidity. — Many investigations 
 have been made that tend to prove that individuals 
 who rely upon the eye chiefly in reading forge ahead 
 more rapidly than those who depend largely upon 
 the ear and lips for their cue in making out meaning.^ 
 At the same time, it is claimed that rapid readers 
 retain more than slow readers. The slow reader 
 can reproduce less by sight than by sound; while 
 the very rapid reader can recall more of the visual 
 than of the auditory. This means that eye-minded- 
 
 * O'Shea, Linguistic Development and Education, The Macmillan Co., 
 1907, p. 226. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 ness is an important factor in determining reading 
 rates. In other words, rapid readers are generally 
 of the visual t)Ape. Other ways of stating the com- 
 parison are the following: "The ten slowest readers 
 show almost double the amount of lip-movement 
 that the ten most rapid do"; or, the "ten most 
 decided lip-movers read 4.1 words per second; 
 while the ten who show least movement of lips read 
 5.6 words per second." ^ From these facts O'Shea 
 infers that "the greater the number of modalities 
 that are involved in reacting upon any word, the 
 greater is the tendency of the word-idea alone to 
 absorb the attention, and so defeat the end of reading. 
 Therefore, we should employ methods that will 
 reduce the auditory and vocal processes to a minimum 
 or eliminate them altogether if possible." 
 
 I believe a fallacy lurks in these inferences. In 
 the first place, the fact that a reader does not appar- 
 ently move his lips is no proof that he is inhibiting 
 motor images in his thinking; for one may inhibit 
 the actual movement, but not the tendency to move, 
 nor the motor image. This has been proved by 
 conclusive laboratory experiments witnessed by 
 myself. Furthermore, the implication that rapid 
 
 ^ O'Shea, op. ciL, p. 227. 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 35 
 
 readers remember more of what they read because 
 they suppress the motor idea is contradicted by 
 numerous experiments on memory, which show in 
 every instance that recollection is better when the 
 motor image is added to visual and auditory images 
 than when the muscular idea is suppressed. 
 
 The facts in regard to lip-readers simply amount 
 to this : that visual-minded people apperceive visual 
 language more rapidly than the motor-minded.^ 
 Common sense would lead one to expect this very 
 thing. It means that people who depend chiefly on 
 the sense of sight for information and memory see 
 more rapidly than those who depend upon some 
 
 1 "My own experiments show similar results. The visual readers not 
 only read more rapidly than those who have an 'inner speech,' but repro- 
 duce more of what has been read (judged by an immediate test: I do 
 not know what a delayed test would show). Not to have the habit of 
 subarticulation does not seem, in an adult, to impair imderstanding or 
 retention. In learning to read it seems to me both inevitable as an ac- 
 companiment and indispensable as a means. If, therefore, the distinc- 
 tion of visual and motor types in readers is an ultimate (or congenital) 
 mental difference between individuals, we can say that the visual-minded 
 deal more easily and successfully with visual material, but if these be, in 
 any degree, acquired characteristics, then we should have a right to say : 
 In so far as the direct visual habit can be cultivated, it is of advantage to 
 develop it. I have found that the visual readers report the general 
 amoimt of their reading to be greater than that reported by readers of 
 the other type, which suggests a relation between practice and the rise 
 of this form of association. " — Professor Robert MacDougall, New 
 York University, in a personal note to the author, commenting on the 
 above paragraph. 
 
36 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACfflNG READING 
 
 other sense. It is my opinion that children are all 
 motor-minded; that the muscular image, as some 
 one has said, is the greatest psychological discovery 
 of modern times. The importance of the motor 
 idea in the mental life of the child is shown in his 
 passion for movement, his interest in the action and 
 function of things, his instinct of making and han- 
 dling objects, his manner of learning oral speech, and 
 in reading and in stud3dng. The actual movement 
 of the lips in reading will tend naturally to diminish 
 as the pupil gains skUl in speech. But the motor 
 images remain as a vital element of the total associa- 
 tion of the word. If this were not the case, it would 
 be impossible to utter words at will, since there must 
 be a pattern of movement in the mind before any 
 voluntary action can take place at all. One other 
 consideration must be borne in mind in this connec- 
 tion; namely, that in learning to read the child is 
 not merely getting thought from visual language, 
 but is fashioning a tool for future use. The word 
 is a medium through which one sees the thoughts 
 of others; but it is also an implement for the ex- 
 pression of one's own thoughts. It is not a com- 
 plete word until it has gone through the motor stage. 
 Intelligent educators recognize this when they in- 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF READING 37 
 
 sist that we shall not teach the spelling of words 
 that children cannot use. Now, use always means 
 a motor function. Furthermore, the use of common 
 words must be automatic in order to be effective. 
 Hence the expressive phase of words cannot be elim- 
 inated even if it were desirable to do so. In the 
 early reading lessons the most difficult problem is 
 to get the child to remember his sight words and 
 phonetic elements; and the motor element of this 
 learning process is the most important of all the 
 clews of memory. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 
 
 In order to make his method scientific, the teacher 
 studies not only the laws of mental development and 
 action, but tries to discover also how activities of 
 the mind are related to the nervous and muscular 
 functions of the body. Our next inquiry, therefore, 
 is: What are the physiological factors in the process 
 of reading ? 
 
 I. The Physical Basis of Association. — In physio- 
 logical terms we may say that if two or more groups 
 of brain cells are stimulated simultaneously or by 
 like objects, a subsequent stimulation of one of them 
 tends to produce action in the remaining ones. The 
 cells in each region of the brain and of the different 
 regions are connected by means of fibres; and all 
 experiments point to the conclusion that these con- 
 necting fibres are involved in association. Dr. Vulpius 
 says connecting fibres begin to grow in the outer 
 and inner layer of the cortex about the fifth month 
 of the infant's life, and cease to grow at the age of 
 seventeen. The motor, sight, and hearing regions 
 
 38 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 39 
 
 reach the maximum number of fibres during the 
 second year. The speech centre keeps on increas- 
 ing its fibres in number rapidly until the eleventh 
 year, and more slowly until the thirty-ninth year.^ 
 The inferences from these facts seem to be that 
 the necessities of the infant's life call first for the 
 motor development; and, as movements are asso- 
 ciated with visual and auditory impressions, these 
 centres function at the same time. The motor ap- 
 paratus is perfected rapidly after the fifth month, 
 so that at about the age of one year children usually 
 begin to walk ; and by the end of the second year 
 the growth of motor fibres culminates, which im- 
 plies that henceforth nature demands a tremendous 
 amount of motor activity. The rapid development 
 of the speech centre culminates at eleven, which 
 seems to mean that the most favorable period for 
 language teaching is at that age and immediately 
 afterward. This corresponds roughly with the period 
 when the child in most European countries goes to 
 the secondary school and begins the study of a for- 
 eign language. In our country the study of foreign 
 language is postponed until the age of foxirteen. 
 European practice is in closer harmony with physi- 
 
 * Frederic Burk, Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 6, p. 5. 
 
40 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 ological demands than our own procedure. There 
 is an agitation now going on which seeks to end the 
 elementary period with the sixth school year. This 
 would involve a complete reconstruction of our edu- 
 cational system, but as the proposal is supported 
 by the experience of foreign nations as well as by 
 the teachings of brain physiology, we may in time 
 yield to the argument. 
 
 2. Localization of Brain Function. — We have as 
 yet an imperfect knowledge of the localization of 
 brain function. From what we do know the prob- 
 ability is strong that every mental activity involves 
 a corresponding physical activity. We know, for 
 instance, that the motor area is located on each side 
 of the Fissure of Rolando. The region above the 
 Fissure of Sylvius is the speech centre. Hearing is 
 located in the temporal region. Sight is in the occip- 
 ital lobe. These facts have been verified by several 
 methods, the most convincing of which is that when 
 a given region of the brain is damaged the corre- 
 sponding mental function disappears. 
 
 (i) Aphasias. — The dependence of words upon 
 brain substance is clearly shown in the following 
 experience of Dr. William H. Thomson,^ of New 
 
 ^ Brain and Personality, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1897, p. 88. 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 41 
 
 York: "I was once hurriedly sent Jor by an old 
 patient of mine. I found her much disturbed by a 
 strange experience which she immediately detailed 
 in the well-chosen words of an educated woman: 
 'What is the reason, doctor,' she said, 'that every- 
 thing in a book or newspaper is illegible to me? 
 Last evening I sent an advertisement to the Herald 
 for a waitress, and when the girls came this morning 
 I could not read their references. I then took up 
 the Herald and found that I could not read a word 
 in it. At first I supposed my eyesight had failed, 
 but I could see everything around the room as well 
 as ever, and so also with my crochet work. I then 
 opened the Bible, but could not read a word. What 
 is the matter with me ? ' I at once recognized that 
 she had been struck with word-blindness. . . . Hav- 
 ing calmed her excitement as best I could, I was able 
 to note that she had absolutely no other disorder of 
 speech and none of vision. She heard every word 
 that came to her ears, and she could speak as flu- 
 ently as ever, but no word could reach her conscious- 
 ness through her eyes. All that as yet had hap- 
 pened to her was that a little artery which supplies 
 blood to a small area in the visual region of her 
 brain had become plugged, with the result of totally 
 
42 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 disorganizing the gray matter where eye words are 
 registered. The brain gray matter . . . immedi- 
 ately dies if deprived of its supply of blood." 
 
 The defect described here is called by scientific 
 men alexia, and consists in a loss of power to read. 
 The printed characters are seen, but they convey no 
 meaning. The individual thus affected may be 
 able to write, but is unable to read what he has just 
 written. Words as visual symbols are blotted out. 
 
 Another form of aphasia is known as word-deaf- 
 ness. A man thus stricken may at first be supposed 
 to have become insane, because he talks nothing 
 but gibberish and cannot understand anything that 
 is said to him. It may, however, turn out that he 
 can read and write as well as ever, and to all ques- 
 tions put to him in writing he may write correct and 
 intelligent answers. He can hear and understand 
 the ticking of a watch and the notes of a canary 
 and all other sounds except those of spoken words. 
 This disease is caused by injury to a small area of 
 the brain which is described as a part of the left 
 superior temporal convolution. (See "Wernicke," 
 
 Fig. 5.) 
 
 The aphasias thus far illustrated are of the sensory 
 type. Motor aphasia is known under the general 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 43 
 
 name of apraxia and is defined as "a loss of ability 
 to perform learned or skilled acts, in the absence of 
 paralysis, or ataxia, or pronounced sensory or per- 
 ceptional defect." ^ A man retires at night in good 
 health, and finds himself unable the next morning 
 
 Central fissure 
 
 Middle 
 
 frontal gyre- 
 Preceniral gyre 
 
 Fissure of Sylvitis 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 Reproduced, with permission, from Ladd and Woodworth's Elements of 
 Physiological Psychology. 
 
 to speak a word. He is not suffering from word- 
 deafness, for he understands everything that is 
 spoken to him. Nor is he affected with word- 
 blindness, because he can read. In his distress he 
 indicates by gestures that he would like to write ; but 
 
 ^ Elements of Physiological Psychology, Ladd and Wood worth, Scrib- 
 ner's Sons, 191 1, p. 254. 
 
44 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 though he can hold his pen and move it on the paper, 
 he can find no words to express himself by writing, 
 any more than he can by speaking. Words as motor 
 images have disappeared from his mind. This 
 affiiction is usually caused by an injury to Broca's 
 Convolution. (See Fig. 5.) ' 
 
 3. The Physical Basis of a Word. — Animals have 
 cries, calls, grunts, squeals, screams, and whatever 
 other sounds there may be, but no words. Their 
 language corresponds with that of the infant's first 
 stage, when his only utterance is a cry./ The cries 
 in each instance are purely instinctive. ,jf The princi- 
 pal truth about a word is that it is the result of a 
 voluntary act of the mind. Apart from a thinking 
 mind it has no existence. Every word was originally 
 made by a personality which designed it. The 
 word is an instrument which the thinker invents for 
 himself for the purpose of defining his thoughts. 
 Feelings may be expressed by a cry or other sound. 
 They do not need words to become true feelings. 
 In fact, language usually fails when we try to ex- 
 press our feelings. But thoughts need words to be- 
 come true thoughts. Hence speech is the basis of 
 man's superiority over the brute creation. 
 
 The complexity of the cerebral elements concerned 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 45 
 
 in the knowledge and use of words is shown by the 
 manifold sensory and motor experience that verbal 
 expression involves. Words are, in the first place, 
 objects of sense-perception. The spoken word is 
 recorded on the auditory region of the cortex. The 
 written or printed word leaves its trace on the visual 
 centre. The point-word of the blind produces an 
 impression through the tactile sense. 
 
 There is, in the second place, a large variety of 
 motor forms of reaction. When one looks at a word 
 the ciliary muscle is exercised, and the motores oculi 
 perform their share of the labor of accommodation. 
 When one observes the writing of a word, an addi- 
 tional motor experience is furnished by the eye as it 
 follows the movement of the point of the writing 
 instrument. If one writes himself, the eye follows 
 the hand, while the muscles of hand, fingers, wrist, 
 forearm, and whole arm make their record of move- 
 ment and resistance. The spoken word exercises 
 the vocal cords, tongue, lips, larynx, and diaphragm. 
 Assuming that each of these motor processes in- 
 volves a separate brain area, it is thus evident that 
 the mere form of the word is functionally related 
 to a vast number of cerebral elements. 
 
 Alexander Bain was one of the first of modern 
 
46 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 psychologists to discover the significance of the 
 motor idea in the mental life. "Thinking," he says, 
 "is restrained speaking or acting." ^ "A child can- 
 not describe anything that he was engaged in, with- 
 out acting it out to the full length that the circum- 
 stances will permit. . . . No better example could 
 be furnished than the vocal recollections. When we 
 recall the impression of a word or a sentence, if we 
 do not speak it out, we feel the twitter of the organs 
 just about to come to that point. The articulating 
 parts — the larynx, the tongue, the lips — are aU 
 sensibly excited. . . . Some persons of weak or 
 incontinent nerves can hardly think without mutter- 
 ing — they talk to themselves." ^ 
 
 Commenting on this passage. Stout says that Dr. 
 Bain "rather understates his case; this habit is 
 by no means confined to persons of weak or incon- 
 tinent nerves. It is often found in those who become 
 intensely absorbed in their own trains of thought to 
 the disregard of their social surroundings. . . . Ide- 
 ational process is correlated with brain process. 
 The brain is so intimately one with the rest of the 
 organism that processes in it cannot take place 
 without in some measure overflowing to other parts 
 
 ^ The Senses and the Intellect, 4th ed., p. 358. ^ Op. cit.,'p. 357. 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 47 
 
 of the body. . . . Where ideational activity is just 
 struggUng into independent existence, so that it may 
 be regarded as little more than an extension or supple- 
 ment of perceptual activity, ideas can scarcely fail 
 to pass into overt movements." ^ 
 
 (i) How a Word gets Recorded on the Brain. — 
 Three speech areas have been determined on the cor- 
 tex of the brain, — the auditory, the visual, and the 
 motor. These are normally connected by fibres, 
 so that stimulation of one afifects each of the others. 
 The sound of a word suggests its written or printed 
 form; the sight of a word calls up its sound; and 
 both the sight and the sound will tend to inaugurate 
 expression. A stimulus acting upon the sense-organ 
 is transmitted to the brain, where it affects certain 
 nerve-cells. If this stimulus is repeated, the im- 
 pression is deepened. The constant and prolonged 
 repetition of a stimulus will thus effect a permanent 
 anatomical change in the brain stuff. This change 
 no microscope can detect ; but that it exists, no 
 intelligent man can doubt. The words that one 
 hears produce permanent changes in the auditory 
 region. The words that are seen are recorded in the 
 
 ^Manual of Psychology, G. F. Stout, Hinds & Noble, N.Y., 1899, 
 pp. 468-469. 
 
48 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 visual area. Motor images of expression, whether 
 oral or written, are supposed by some to be the exclu- 
 sive function of Broca's Convolution. 
 
 In 1861 Broca first announced his important dis- 
 covery that a certain gyrus above the Fissure of 
 Sylvius on the left hemisphere is especially concerned 
 in exercising the power of speech. He explained the 
 fact that aphasias usually follow injury to the left 
 half of the brain by relating speech to gesture, one 
 of the early and instinctive modes of expression. As 
 most men are right-handed, they are left-brained 
 in language. Broca, however, spoke of a "faculty" 
 of language and believed that its physical basis is 
 in what we now know as Broca's Convolution. 
 There is no faculty of language as such, whose seat 
 is confined to any particular area of the brain. 
 Speech involves all the faculties or functions of the 
 mind, and is not confined to any one cerebral area. 
 But there seems "to be good ground for still re- 
 taining Broca's speech centre, while relieving it of 
 part of its supposed duties." ^ 
 
 Now these three speech centres — the visual, the 
 auditory, and the motor — do not create words. 
 They merely register words fashioned by the human 
 
 ^ Elements of Physiological Psychology, Ladd and Woodworth, p. 261. 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 49 
 
 spirit and keep them ready for use. Emperor 
 Charles V is credited with the saying that a man is 
 as many times a man as the number of languages 
 he knows. In addition to the various forms of 
 aphasias already referred to, there is one known 
 under the name of asymholia} This has led to the 
 inference that there are separate cerebral areas for 
 each' language, as well as for figures, music, and ob- 
 jects. Thus, it has been shown that injury to the 
 brain may blot out all English words; but leave 
 Latin, Greek, and French intact.^ Similarly, ' there 
 are separate areas for recording music and figures ; 
 for cases are cited of patients who "had lost the 
 power of reading music, though they could still read 
 words ; and Dr. Thomson treated a patient who had 
 lost the power to read and write words, though he 
 could both read and write figures, and continued 
 active in business for several years after his misfor- 
 tune had overtaken him. He never recovered the 
 use 'of words, but retained his knowledge of figures 
 to the end of life.^ Perhaps this physiological pecu- 
 
 ^Ladd and Woodworth, op. cit., p. 252. 
 
 2 Professor Hinshelwood, of the University of Glasgow, in Lancet, 
 Feb. 8, 1902. See also his book, Letter, Word, and Mind Blindness, 
 London, 1901. 
 
 ^ Brain and Personality, W. H. Thomson, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1908, 
 p. 102. 
 
50 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 liarity explains why a child learns two languages as 
 easily as one, and uses the two without confusion. 
 
 When a child learns to talk, he begins with bab- 
 bling ; that is, he imitates all sorts of sounds that he 
 hears, merely as sounds. He plays with his voice. 
 This shows that the auditory region and Broca's 
 Convolution are so intimately related, though so 
 far apart in space, that every sound registered in the 
 one gets itself automatically expressed through the 
 other. In the next stage the child recognizes sounds 
 as significant ; he apperceives them as words. Then 
 he chatters. Words are now repeated as incessantly 
 as empty sounds were before. This is practice, 
 practice, practice, but all instinctive, all in the form 
 of play. Thus unconsciously and without formal 
 teaching oral speech is registered in the auditory 
 area and in Broca's Convolution. 
 
 We have already pointed out that reading and 
 writing are not instinctive, but conventional. The 
 child will not learn to read and write through mere 
 playful imitation, as he learned to speak. A teacher 
 becomes necessary; and he must supply artificially 
 the conditions that nature provides in oral speech. 
 These conditions are interest and practice, practice, 
 practice. The connection between the auditory 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 51 
 
 region and Broca's Convolution is fully established. 
 The task now before us is to connect the third or 
 visual area with the other two. Drill takes the 
 place of play. The seen word must be associated 
 with its sound, with its expression, and with its 
 meaning. And there is no royal road to success. 
 All we can hope to do is to appeal to interest and 
 the play instinct and thus imitate as nearly as pos- 
 sible the natural conditions found in the case of oral 
 speech. 
 
 4. Physical Basis of the Meaning of Words. — Sir 
 William MacEwen, an eminent Professor of Surgery 
 in the University of Glasgow, gives the following 
 interesting particulars in the case of a mechanic who 
 had received a severe injury to his head : ^ Imme- 
 diately after the accident he was in a peculiar mental 
 condition. Physically he could see, but what he 
 saw conveyed no impression to his mind. Thus an 
 object presented itself before him which he could not 
 make out, but when this object emitted sounds of 
 the human voice, he at once recognized it to be a 
 man who was one of his fellow-workers. He was 
 equally unable to recognize his wife and children. 
 
 1 Address before the British Medical Association, etc., British Medical 
 Journal, 1888, Vol. 2, p. 307. 
 
52 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 By eyesight he could not tell how many fingers he 
 held up when he placed his own hand before his face 
 till he became aware of the number by the sense of 
 touch. These symptoms gave the clew to the hidden 
 injury in his brain and told the surgeon where to 
 trephine the skull. The operation showed that a 
 portion of the inner table of the skull had been de- 
 tached and become embedded in the gray matter of 
 that locality. The bone was removed; and then 
 the patient recovered and returned to work. 
 
 From this and similar cases we learn that seeing 
 and knowing what is seen are not the same thing, 
 because each of these mental processes has a dis- 
 tinct material basis in the brain. We have already 
 cited a case of word-blindness, an affliction under 
 which a patient sees words but does not know what 
 they mean. The case of Professor MacEwen is 
 called mind-blindness, although it is no more such 
 than the other. The significant thing in both cases 
 is the fact that there is one region of the brain which 
 registers words, and another which registers their 
 meanings. There is a separate area employed in 
 seeing objects and still another area in making out 
 what the objects are. We have already explained 
 what is meant by sound-deafness. The patient 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 53 
 
 hears perfectly the spoken words of others, but does 
 not know what they mean. There is a place in the 
 temporal lobe where sound stimuli in general are 
 registered and an adjoining area where the meaning 
 of sounds in general is recorded. Let this latter 
 region be separately damaged, and the victim can- 
 not tell the sound of a boiler factory from a church 
 bell. All sounds are alike indistinguishable noises. 
 From these illustrations it is certain that the know- 
 ing areas are distinct from the sensory areas, but in 
 close proximity. In other words, the "meaning" of 
 a spoken or written word is registered on a distinct 
 cortical area. We therefore have a fourth physiolog- 
 ical factor to add to the three speech areas already 
 described ; namely, the word-meaning centres. And 
 as there is one area for the meanings of heard-words 
 and another area for the meanings of seen-words, 
 the total number of speech centres for words alone 
 is five. If we recall that music and numbers and 
 foreign languages occupy each a distinct place on 
 the map of the cerebral hemispheres, we get some 
 notion of the complexity of physiological func- 
 tions involved in the speech of an educated human 
 being. 
 
 5. The Relation of Lefl-and-Right-Handedness to 
 
54 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Speech. — In the first chapter we called attention to 
 the fact that when the child begins to employ ges- 
 ture as a mode of expression he uses one hand more 
 than the other, and thus determines (or shall we say 
 indicates ?) whether he is to be right-handed or left- 
 handed. We shall now see that right-handedness 
 and left-handedness bear a most remarkable physi- 
 ological relation to the development of oral and 
 written speech. It is well known that the left brain 
 governs the right side of the body, and the right brain 
 governs the left side of the body. Injury to either 
 hemisphere of the brain produces, therefore, paraly- 
 sis on the opposite side of the body. It should also 
 be recalled that most people are right-handed. 
 With these facts in mind we proceed to quote the 
 following statement, written by Professor Ladd of 
 Yale in 1891 : "Aphasia is far more frequently due 
 to changes in the left than in the right hemisphere 
 of the brain. Dr. Seguin, out of 260 cases, calcu- 
 lated the proportion of aphasias due to lesions on 
 the left side, as compared with those due to lesions 
 on the right, to be as 243 : 17 or 14.3 : i. . . . Such 
 facts have led to the theory that, in all but left- 
 handed men, speech, like other motor functions, is 
 chiefly left-brained; remarkable cases of left-handed 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 55 
 
 people who have become aphasic through lesions 
 on the right hemisphere are actually recorded." ^ 
 
 Twenty years later the same authority writes as 
 follows : " Simple paralysis or loss of sensation re- 
 sults from injury to either hemisphere. But object- 
 blindness, word-blindness, or word-deafness, the 
 various aphasias and apraxias, usually result from 
 injury to the left hemisphere." ^ That is to say, 
 ordinary movement and sensation are the function 
 of both sides of the brain, but special skills and the 
 record of education seem to be the function of one 
 hemisphere only. The patient treated by Dr. 
 Thomson suffered injury to Broca's Convolution of 
 the left hemisphere ; but he had a perfectly sound 
 right Broca which had no record of speech. Professor 
 MacEwen's patient was a right-handed man, and 
 the splinter was driven into a convolution of his left 
 brain, or the speaking hemisphere. Now he had 
 exactly the same collection of cells on his right hemi- 
 sphere, all uninjured, yet these could not help him 
 to recognize his own wife and children. It is evi- 
 dent, therefore, that those cells on the right hemi- 
 
 1 Elements of Physiological Psychology, George Trumbull Ladd, Scrib- 
 ner's Sons, 1901, p. 295. 
 
 2 Elements of Physiological Psychology, Ladd and Woodworth, Scrib- 
 ner's Sons, 1911, p. 263. 
 
56 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 sphere could see because they belonged to the visual 
 area, yet they did not know what they saw. Though 
 belonging to an adult man, they had never been 
 taught the meaning of visual objects, and did not 
 know what they saw any more than an infant knows 
 what it sees the first week of Ufe. 
 
 All our education, therefore, is registered on one 
 side of the brain only. If that side is injured, some 
 mental functions disappear; if the uneducated side 
 is damaged, intelligence remains intact, although 
 paralysis may ensue. "It would seem, from the 
 evidence obtained, that the left hemisphere so 
 completely takes charge of acts of skill, and of in- 
 tellectual processes concerned in them, as to leave 
 nothing for the great bulk of the right hemisphere 
 to do. Such a conclusion is, of course, in itself ex- 
 tremely improbable, especially in view of the nearly 
 equal size and inner development of the two hemi- 
 spheres; but it must be admitted that the role of 
 the right hemisphere, aside from the simplest sen- 
 sory and motor functions, is not at all clearly made 
 out." 1 
 
 " A man who was one of the strongest thinkers and 
 
 ^Elements of Physiological Psychology, La,dd and Woodworth, 191 1, 
 p. 264. 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 57 
 
 one of the greatest masters of English style that I 
 have ever known," says Dr. Thomson/ "had his 
 mind totally wrecked one morning by an apoplectic 
 clot. But though he lived for months afterwards 
 with his right brain hemisphere apparently as sound 
 as ever, yet he could not recognize the dearly loved 
 members of his family either by sight or by their 
 voices. His intelligence was simply suddenly anni- 
 hilated by the injury in his left hemisphere." The 
 same writer cites the following remarkable case: 
 A patient forty-seven years of age awoke one morn- 
 ing with his whole left side numb and paralyzed. 
 " He remained thus paralyzed ten years till he died, 
 but meantime his speech was perfectly normal, his 
 reading good, and his memory unaffected. He gave 
 no sign of mental weakness, but was always intelli- 
 gent, patient, cheerful, and particularly good in 
 attention. He read papers constantly and liked 
 to talk politics. He bore his disability bravely, and 
 was neither depressed, emotional, irritable, nor 
 apathetic. At the autopsy a large cyst fuU of fluid 
 occupied the anterior part of the right hemisphere, 
 with the whole tissue disorganized and without any 
 
 ^ Brain and Personality, W. H. Thomson, Dodd, Mead & Co., N.Y., 
 1908, p. 237. 
 
58 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 remains of gray matter, while the posterior half of 
 the hemisphere was everywhere atrophied." 
 
 Now what determines which hemisphere shall be 
 educated ? Most men are right-handed, hence apha- 
 sias and apraxias occur generally from injury to the 
 left brain. "This special culture of the left hemi- 
 sphere — if we may so express the fact — may well 
 enough be connected, both as cause and effect, with 
 the prevalent right-handedness of the human spe- 
 cies." Thus Ladd and Woodworth.^ Some, more 
 bold, have ventured the statement that the hand 
 that an infant uses predominantly for gesture 
 determines not only whether he is to be right-handed 
 or left-handed, but also whether his right or left 
 hemisphere is to be educated. Apparently no area 
 of the brain ever interchanges its capacity with any 
 other. The auditory area cannot be taught to see, 
 the visual area cannot be taught to hear, and neither 
 of them can take the place of Broca's Convolution. 
 Neither can the seeing area be taught to know what 
 is seen or the hearing area to know the meaning of 
 sounds. Recoveries in aphasia are explained on the 
 theory that there has been no total destruction of 
 tissue, or that the corresponding area in the opposite 
 
 ^ Op. cit., p. 264. 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 59 
 
 hemisphere has been educated to do the work of the 
 injured one. In young persons, while the nervous 
 system is still plastic, this is possible. But after the 
 age of fifty it is usually impossible to induce the un- 
 educated hemisphere to learn any new tricks. 
 
 6. Muscular Movements involved in Reading. — 
 Numerous attempts have been made to ascertain 
 the exact behavior of the eyes when we read.^ By 
 these studies the following facts have been estab- 
 lished : — 
 
 (i) By means of photographs and recording 
 apparatus attached to the eyes, it can be proved 
 that the eyes in reading do not travel at a uniform 
 rate of speed across the page, but move along in 
 steps. 
 
 (2) These steps vary in size and number from 
 line to line in the case of a single individual. In 
 Fig. 6 we have the record of four successive read- 
 ings of a line by the same subject.^ The short ver- 
 tical Hues show where the pauses were made. The 
 figures at the right indicate the number of pauses. 
 
 * The most noteworthy of these studies are found in the following two 
 volumes: (o) The Psychology of Reading, by Walter F. Dearborn, 
 Science Press, N.Y., 1906 ; {b) The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, 
 by Edmund B. Huey, The Macmillan Co., 1908. 
 
 2 Dearborn, op. cit., p. 75. 
 
i 
 
 60 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 The figures over the words indicate the duration of 
 the pause in thousandths of a second. When the fixa- 
 tion was unsteady, a bracket and curve show the be- 
 ginning and ending of the oscillation. The shift is 
 from bracket to curve. The second reading in the 
 
 Successive Readings by the Same Subject OP a. Newspaper 
 ^ Column g 
 
 I CHART I A I 
 
 e 
 
 z z 
 
 5A dT. PEJTB|RSBURlG, Nov.] 2.(— Thie Ad[m)Iratty 6 
 
 490 140 140 230 
 
 13B ST. PE[TE)ESBURG, [N)av. 2vj— The Ad[in)iraJty 4 
 
 200 160 160 840 
 
 15A 1ST. PET)EIISBURG, Nov. 12.— )Tlie AXlm[ira)lty 4 
 
 *> 440 S20 200 
 
 15B ST. PETER|SBURG, Nov. 2.— Thej AdDi[lra)lty 3 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 From Dearborn's Psychology of Reading, by permission. 
 
 case was made a month after the first; the others 
 were made immediately after the second. 
 
 (3) The steps vary in size and number in different 
 individuals. In Fig. 7 we have the record of five 
 subjects, whose steps vary in number from 3 to 7 
 for the same line. 
 
 (4) Children take more steps than adults and move 
 more slowly. This characteristic is verified by com- 
 mon observation. Beginners in reading assist the 
 eye in its long journey across the page by the use 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 6i 
 
 of the fingers, which mark the numerous stopping 
 places. Thus, tests made by Dearborn ^ on three 
 children aged 9, 10, and 11, respectively, show in 
 the youngest subject about double the number of 
 
 Readings bj JPive Subjects of the) Same Newspaper Passage 
 
 I 
 I CHART II I 
 
 in SB 
 
 St2 Iti IB2 SSI 
 
 T ST. PB(TB]RSBUR|G, No[V.) 2.— Tli|e Ajimiralty 4 
 
 490 140 140 350 
 
 H ST. PBCTERSBURG, [N)ov. 2.-|-Th6 Ad[m)iralty 4 
 
 416 806 186 1S6 840 
 
 S [ST. ]PBTER|S(B]URG, Nov). 2.— (Thle Admiralty 4 
 
 OTO •" ''»1116 646 
 
 F ST. P|ETERSBUR[G, Nov). 2.— The Atdm)iralty 3 
 
 811 148 140 171 8fil 163 273 
 
 M (S[T. |PE]TBR|SBURtG, )No[v.) 2.— [Th)e Ad|miralty 7 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 From Dearborn's Psychology of Reading, by permission. 
 
 pauses found in the case of ordinary adult reading. 
 (See Fig. 8.) 
 
 (5) All the seeing takes place during the pauses. 
 While the eye is moving from one fixation to another, 
 it cannot see. The exact length of each pause can 
 be ascertained as well as the total time, and a cal- 
 culation shows that the eye-movement between 
 pauses is so rapid that a fusion of stimuli results and 
 makes vision impossible. In reading, the eye takes 
 
 ^ op. cit., p. 97. 
 
62 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 a fixed position, then surveys the line for some dis- 
 tance on each side of the fixated point, taking in at 
 a glance all the letters within the range of clear vision, 
 after which it passes on to a new point of observation. 
 (6) It has been proved, further, that adults in 
 reading do not attend to individual letters, but recog- 
 nize them in groups. Thus, with a reaction machine 
 
 CHART XVII B 
 C. L. Third Grade. Age 11. First Beading 
 
 SOT 493 530 487 286 1188 
 
 t K[i)n[g Mi)das thought, a[n)d thought.] At lastj |h|e| 
 , b c a • < h g I 
 
 830 246 174 190 196 499 766 666 868 778 
 
 Ioo|ked| at t|he str|ang|er| and sa[id), [")I wishl that[) 
 f • 
 
 784 179 146 186 167 879 420 4S4 426 319 370 883 
 
 ev[e)r)ythin|g [that I |touc[h ma)y [tur)ii [to) go|ld[.") | | | 
 
 • db c« I fhjgkJ 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 From Dearborn's Psychology of Reading, by permission. 
 
 it is ascertained that a word of five letters is recog- 
 nized in the same time that is required for the identi- 
 fication of a single letter standing by itself. On 
 page loo of Huey's Psychology of Reading are 
 four columns of reading matter. The first column 
 contains 25 letters; the second contains 25 words 
 of 4 letters each; the third contains 25 words of 8 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 63 
 
 letters each; and the last column contains 25 words of 
 12 letters each. I tested a high school girl on the first 
 three columns with the following resxilt : first column, 
 7 seconds ; second column, 10 seconds ; third column, 
 1 2 seconds. This means that it required only three- 
 sevenths more time to read 100 letters in the form 
 of words than was required to read 25 letters stand- 
 ing alone. It required only one-fifth more time to 
 read 200 letters in the form of words than was re- 
 quired to read 100 letters in the form of words. The 
 same experiment with a college freshman resulted 
 as follows : letters, 1 1 seconds ; second column, 1 2 
 seconds; third column, 16 seconds. In terms of 
 percentage, the test with the girl means this: to 
 read 25 single letters requires seven seconds; com- 
 bine the letters into words of four letters each, and she 
 can read four times as many letters in only 43 per cent 
 more time ; combine the letters into words of eight 
 letters each, and she can read eight times as many 
 letters in only 71 per cent more time. The freshman's 
 test shows that with about 10 per cent more time 
 than it takes to read 25 single letters he can read 25 
 words of four letters each, and with about 45 per cent 
 more time he can read 25 words of eight letters each. 
 The conclusion is inevitable that, in reading, words 
 
64 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 are recognized as wholes; or that the letters com- 
 posmg words are recognized in groups. 
 
 (7) Experiments on muscular memory^ have 
 shown that motor images are an important part of 
 our memory of words, and that there is so strong 
 a tendency to muscular movement of articulation 
 when we think of a word, that it is impossible en- 
 tirely to inhibit the movement. These movements 
 of articulation, Hke the movement of the eyes in 
 reading, represent words as wholes. Indeed, as 
 Judd says, the eye-movements across the page seem 
 to undergo a further reduction by which a single 
 unitary movement may correspond to a whole group 
 of words, rather than to single words. Cattell found 
 one reader who could read seven words at a single 
 exposure, and several who could read four words. 
 
 (8) The fact that the steps of the eye across the 
 page are shorter in the case of children than of adults 
 shows that the grouping of word elements into 
 thought wholes is a matter of development. The 
 strong tendency of children to read words as individ- 
 uals rather than as elements of a larger thought 
 group confirms the above conclusion. 
 
 1 T. S. Smith, American Journal of Psychology, July, 1896 ; Charles 
 H. Judd, Genetic Psychology for Teachers, D. Appleton & Co., 1903, p. 244. 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 65 
 
 (9) The eye has a tendency to form short-lived 
 motor habits. For instance, a subject, in reading 
 nine Hnes, read the first four with four fixation 
 pauses for each, and the next five with three pauses for 
 each. Rapid readers form these habits more easily 
 than slow readers. There are relatively fewer pauses 
 when the lines are short, of uniform length, and of 
 equal indentation, than when the lines are long, of 
 variable length, and irregularly indented. 
 
 (10) Dearborn announces his conclusion that the 
 "size of the type should not be so large in compari- 
 son with the length of line that but few words can 
 be put on a line." The effect of too large a type is 
 to increase unnecessarily the number of movements 
 and pauses. A line from 75 to 85 mm., or about 
 a third longer than the ordinary line of the New 
 York dailies, with type 1.15 mm. in height, com- 
 bines many advantages. 
 
 (11) The chief factor in determining the fixation 
 pause seems to be the unit of apperception. This 
 unit is small in the case of numerals, abbreviations, 
 connective elements, and long in the case of nouns, 
 adjectives, verbs, and familiar phrases. A new 
 fixation is made for each unit of apperception. 
 
 7. The Meaning of Words is Largely Motor. — 
 
66 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Miss Adelaide M. Abell, in Educational Review for 
 October, 1894, reports the results of experiments in 
 reading upon Wellesley College girls. The girls 
 were told to read a short story at a given hour and to 
 time themselves. A few hours later they were asked 
 to reproduce the story as nearly verbatim as possible to 
 test comprehension and memory. The result showed 
 that the slowest reader required six times as much 
 time as the fastest. It showed also that slow readers 
 "gain by slowness" and that comprehension does not 
 depend upon whether one reads slowly or rapidly. In 
 spite of this conclusion, Miss Abell ventures what ap- 
 pears to me the illogical opinion that lip-movement is 
 a hindrance, and should be discouraged in children. 
 Huey tested twenty graduate students in a uni- 
 versity, all of whom were necessarily extensive 
 readers. The range of rate was from 2.5 words per 
 second to 9.8 words. "Lip-movement was usual 
 with only two or three of the twenty readers, but 
 one of the fastest readers tested was a lip-mover." ^ 
 This shows that the prevalence of the motor process 
 is not the sole cause of slow reading. Such ele- 
 ments as general habits of visual perception, prac- 
 
 ^ The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, The Macmillan Co., igoS, 
 P- 175- 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 67 
 
 tice in reading from childhood, power of concentra- 
 tion, and mental alertness are recognized by Huey 
 as factors in the reading rate. Romanes ^ confirms 
 the conclusion that rapidity of reading is not nec- 
 essarily accompanied by brilliancy of intellect. 
 "There is no relationship," he declares, "between 
 rapidity of perception . . . and intellectual activity, 
 for I have tried the experiment with several highly 
 distinguished men in science and literature, whom 
 I found to be slow readers." After a detailed ac- 
 count of certain experiments on interpretation of 
 what is read and the nature of meaning, Huey says : 
 "We may safely conclude, then, that meanings in 
 reading are mainly feeling-reactions and motor atti- 
 tudes attaching most intimately to or fused with 
 the inner utterance of the words and especially of 
 the sentences that are read. And with the utter- 
 ance in which the meanings mainly inhere, we must 
 include the movements of emphasis, of inflection, 
 of gesture, and of expression generally. . . . The 
 feeling of these bodily postures, attitudes, gestures, 
 etc., may well furnish the very body of much that 
 we call meaning." ^ 
 
 ^ Mental Evolution in Animals, George J. Romanes, D. Appleton & 
 Co., 1893, p. 136. ^ Op. cit., p. 167, 
 
68 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Here we are face to face with a new fact, which 
 has evidently been overlooked by all those who have 
 advised us to discourage lip-movement, and have 
 even endeavored to eliminate altogether the vocal 
 image of the word. Such a procedure they call short- 
 circuiting the association between the visual word 
 and its meaning. But now we are confronted by 
 the remarkable statement from one of those who 
 himself is opposed to lip-reading that meaning itself 
 is motor. When, therefore, we eliminate the articu- 
 lation of words, we destroy a part of their meaning ; 
 and thus the teacher who undertakes to make the 
 direct and simple association between the visual 
 image of the word and its meaning, will find his task 
 impossible. "There can be little doubt," says 
 Huey,^ " that the main meaning comes to conscious- 
 ness only with the beginning of the sentence-utter- 
 ance, and the reader does not feel that he has the 
 complete sense until he has spoken it." 
 
 8. Posture of Pupil. — An important part in oral 
 reading is the muscular control involved in the 
 posture of the pupil. One difficulty of the reading 
 teacher is that children are timid. They are afraid 
 of their own voices. Their classmates, unable to 
 
 I Op. ciL, p. 147. 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF READING 69 
 
 hear them, are liable to lose interest, and then the 
 reading hour becomes flat and unprofitable. To 
 avoid this serious result, the teacher should start by 
 teaching the children how to stand. They may be 
 called one by one to stand in front of the class, to 
 plant themselves firmly upon two feet, with heels 
 together, chest high, and body erect. Then they 
 should be directed to look squarely into the eyes of 
 the audience. After several attempts they can do 
 this without flinching. In this way they secure 
 courage and a sense of power and repose. Without 
 the possession of this feeling of confidence, no pupil 
 can read well. Sometimes a child may step to the 
 front and read. If this consumes too much time, let 
 the pupil face in the direction of the largest portion 
 of the class. He must understand that oral read- 
 ing is for the purpose of pleasing and instructing 
 others; and therefore he must endeavor to speak 
 with force sufficient to enable all to hear him. But 
 he must on no account be permitted to go to the 
 other extreme and yell. He must be taught by 
 example that force is not identical with noise, 
 and that there is a way of making one's self 
 heard even with the use of ordinary conversational 
 tones. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 PRINCIPLES DEDUCED FROM THE PSY- 
 CHOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF 
 READING 
 
 I. From Psychology 
 
 (i) Various stages may be distinguished in a child's 
 acquisition of language. One of these is the "bab- 
 bling" stage, when he uses his vocal organs as a play- 
 thing. This instinct accounts for the universal popu- 
 larity of Mother Goose rhymes among children. When 
 the child repeats these rhymes, with or without mean- 
 ing, he trains his powers of speech, even as he develops 
 his muscular system by physical play. 
 
 (2) Gesture, tone, and inflection play an impor- 
 tant part as auxiliaries of speech, especially during 
 the "chattering" stage. These same elements are 
 essential later to the appreciation and proper ren- 
 dering of reading matter. 
 
 (3) The number of verbs used by a child is rela- 
 tively much larger than in the case of an adult. 
 The child imitates movements before sounds and ex- 
 
 70 
 
PRINCIPLES DEDUCED 71 
 
 presses many actions by gesture. These considera- 
 tions exhort us to put the emphasis, in early reading 
 matter, upon doing, action, movement; hence the 
 popularity of fairy tales, myths, and fables, all of 
 which have the narrative form.^ 
 
 (4) The number of words in a child's vocabulary 
 varies greatly in different individuals, but is larger 
 than is commonly supposed. A child of two may 
 know ten or fifteen hundred words. In the first 
 year of school, children may learn to recognize as 
 many as two thousand printed words.^ 
 
 (5) There is a vast difference between oral lan- 
 guage and visual language. The former is instinctive, 
 and self-acquired; the latter is artificial, and re- 
 quires a teacher. About the only instincts the 
 reading teacher can appeal to are the play instinct 
 and the social desire for approbation. Reading is 
 essentially a form of association; hence the follow- 
 ing laws of association must be employed in our 
 teaching of reading : — 
 
 (6) Frequency. — The recall of an impression de- 
 pends upon the number of times a connection has 
 been made between the terms that are associated. 
 
 ^ See The Action Primer by Thomas O. Baker, American Book Co. 
 2 See chapter on " A Quantitative Study of Reading." 
 
72 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Hence the necessity for constant review and drill 
 in the mechanics of reading. 
 
 (7) Vividness. — The intensity of the first impres- 
 sion is an important factor in subsequent recall. In 
 teaching reading, much of the success depends upon 
 the skill of the first presentation. The vividness 
 of the impression depends upon the nature of the 
 stimulus, — the clear and forceful appeal, — the in- 
 terest in the subject, and the emotion accompanying 
 the impression. 
 
 (8) Congruity. — Congruity of the emotional tone 
 of an impression and the mood we are in controls 
 the course of associations. This principle exhorts 
 the reading teacher to create a suitable atmosphere 
 before undertaking to present a piece of literature. 
 
 (9) Interest. — That in which we are most inter- 
 ested makes the deepest and most abiding impres- 
 sion. Therefore the reading teacher, by skill of 
 method and fitness of subject-matter, must appeal 
 to the interest of the child. 
 
 (10) Voluntary Association. — Not all association 
 is controlled by the mechanical principles already 
 enumerated. The highest type is voluntary. This 
 means that by an effort of the will we can determine 
 our mental movements. When so controlled, the 
 
PRINCIPLES DEDUCED 73 
 
 process is called thinking or studying. One of the 
 highest functions of teaching is to keep the children 
 in control of their associations. 
 
 (11) Silent reading alone is not sufficient. The 
 muscular image of expression is an important part 
 of meaning, and is an essential element in the pro- 
 cess of learning. 
 
 2. From Physiology 
 
 (12) The motor, sight, and hearing areas of the 
 cortex reach the maximum of fibres during the second 
 year. The speech centre keeps on increasing its fibres 
 rapidly until the eleventh year, and more slowly until 
 the thirty-ninth year. From these facts we infer 
 that in teaching a child to read we should employ as 
 far as possible his motor activities. We infer also 
 that the age of twelve is a more favorable time to 
 begin the study of foreign languages than fourteen. 
 
 (13) The principal truth about a word is that it 
 is the result of a voluntary act of the mind. Apart 
 from the thinking mind it has no existence. Broca's 
 Convolution seems to be essential to the expression 
 of words. When this is destroyed, vocal or written 
 utterance is impossible. These facts emphasize the 
 necessity of keeping children in the voluntary control 
 
74 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 of their associations when we are teaching them to 
 read. (See Principle lo.) 
 
 (14) A child learns to speak by instinct and with- 
 out formal teaching. Reading and writing are not 
 instinctive; practice and drill must supply arti- 
 ficially the conditions that nature provides in oral 
 speech. (See Principle 6.) 
 
 (15) The "meaning" of a spoken or written word 
 is registered on a distinct cortical area. Oral speech 
 makes a connection between the heard word, the 
 spoken word, and the meaning. Teaching a child 
 to read is to add the seen word to this complex of 
 associations. 
 
 (16) Only one-half of the brain is educated in 
 speech. Which half shall be thus trained is deter- 
 mined or indicated by left-and-right-handedness. 
 The hand that the child uses most for every pur- 
 pose, including gesture, indicates whether he will edu- 
 cate his left brain or his right brain. Right-handed 
 people educate the left hemisphere ; left-handed people 
 educate the right hemisphere. Thus we see the vast 
 importance of gesture as a principal mode of speech 
 before the acquisition of words. (See Principle 2.) 
 
 (17) The eye in reading moves along the line in 
 steps, the steps varying in size and duration accord- 
 
PRINCIPLES DEDUCED 75 
 
 ing to circumstances. These considerations are 
 important as bearing on the length of line and size 
 of type in reading books for beginners. 
 
 (18) Adults in reading do not attend to individual 
 letters, but recognize them in groups. This impor- 
 tant fact suggests the propriety of teaching to be- 
 ginners sight words as wholes, and condemns the 
 alphabetic method of teaching reading. 
 
 (19) The muscular movements of articulation, 
 like the movement of the eyes in reading, represent 
 words as wholes. This fact is further confirmation 
 of Principle 18. 
 
 (20) The steps of the eye across the page are 
 shorter in the case of children than of adults. This 
 shows that the grouping of word-elements into 
 thought-wholes is a matter of development. Con- 
 stant effort must therefore be made by the reading 
 teacher of the lowest grades to get the children to 
 read thought-groups rather than word-units. 
 
 (21) The eye has a tendency to form short-lived 
 motor habits. There are fewer pauses if the lines 
 are short, of uniform length, and of equal inden- 
 tation. 
 
 (22) Experiments have shown that the meanings 
 in reading "are mainly feeling-reactions and motor 
 
76 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 attitudes " ; that the utterance in which the meanings 
 mainly inhere consists of emphasis, inflection, ges- 
 ture, and expression generally. All this points to 
 the importance of oral reading. (See Principle 2 
 and Principle 11.) 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE ENDS OF READING 
 
 1. Twofold Aspect of Reading. — In our considera- 
 tion of primary reading, we must at the outset keep 
 in mind two distinct phases of the subject ; namely, 
 the mechanics of reading, and reading as Hterature. 
 These two problems are different in kind, yet are 
 intimately related; for learning to read is more or 
 less of a drudgery, since it involves endless repeti- 
 tion and drill and downright hard work, while read- 
 ing as literature is mainly the pursuit of pleasure. 
 Reading will refuse to yield its pleasures until the 
 mechanical difficulties are mastered. But within 
 recent years we have discovered that by emplo3dng 
 suitable literary material in the beginning, we can 
 facilitate the learning of the pupil and relieve the 
 tedium of mechanical driU. 
 
 2. Primary: The Mechanics. — (i) Instant Recog- 
 nition of Speaking Vocabulary. — The object of read- 
 ing in the first years of school is to train pupils to 
 recognize, pronounce, and interpret, with facility 
 
 77 
 
78 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 and accuracy, the words of the printed or written 
 page. The words employed during the first two or 
 three years are taken largely from the child's oral 
 vocabulary. Therefore he is to be occupied in 
 recognizing familiar words in their new disguise. 
 
 Reading is to be looked upon not as an end in itself, 
 but as a means of acquiring knowledge and pleasure 
 from books. A pupil may have a certain mechani- 
 cal fluency in reading without knowing much of 
 what he reads; but he cannot successfully study 
 any other subject unless he can read understandingly. 
 A good reader can get, easily and rapidly, the con- 
 tents of a book ; but to make one's self master of a 
 printed book is what we call studying. Therefore, 
 no matter what the subject of study is, if the lesson 
 consist in mastering a book, the poor reader is al- 
 ways at a disadvantage. Twenty teachers were 
 asked each to write the names of ten boys who had 
 the poorest records in lessons, and to indicate the 
 character of their reading. Of the two hundred 
 poor scholars thus selected, 63 per cent were put down 
 as poor readers and only 27 per cent as good readers. 
 This is an illustration of the important relation the 
 art of reading bears to other school work. 
 
 (2) Analysis of Words into Phonic Elements. — 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 79 
 
 Another object of primary reading is to train pupils 
 to pronounce words with accuracy, ease, and proper 
 force. This necessitates attention to phonic drills. 
 Words are to be arranged into short sentences from 
 the first, and children are to be trained to read these 
 naturally and fluently. The drills are to be first 
 on reading entire sentences with expression and 
 clearness; then on careful pronunciation of whole 
 words; then of syllables; and finally of individual 
 sounds. The individual sounds may then be put 
 together again into syllables and words. When 
 this stage of analysis and synthesis has been reached, 
 it is time to teach the names of the characters which 
 represent individual sounds. 
 
 As to the order in which the elements of oral words 
 and their corresponding written symbols should be 
 taught, there is an almost infinite variety of opinion. 
 Some would teach vowels first, some consonants. 
 Some good authorities prefer to begin with the short 
 vowels, because words containing long vowels usu- 
 ally have silent letters, e.g. pat, pate ; hat, hate ; 
 kit, kite; rat, rate; rod, rode; pet, Pete. But 
 others offer good reasons for beginning with the 
 three long vowels a, e, 0, and the six consonants/, /, 
 m, n, r, s. Ward prefers these soxmds because they 
 
8o THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 may be indefinitely prolonged, and may be easily 
 distinguished in any blending of two or more sounds. 
 They thus lend themselves easily to phonetic read- 
 ing. To me the order of teaching these elements 
 does not seem to be a matter of great moment. But 
 it is important that we recognize the necessity for 
 the work, that we do it at the proper time, and do it 
 with sufficient thoroughness. My experience with 
 reading teachers has brought me to the conclusion 
 that the sooner the child learns these phonetic ele- 
 ments, the more rapid will be his progress in read- 
 ing. For, as soon as he knows the sounds of letters 
 and the value of diacritical marks, he is able to 
 pronounce unfamiliar words without the aid of a 
 teacher. 
 
 At this point I venture a digression to consider 
 the question whether the reading teacher should 
 begin with script or print. Some begin with one, 
 some with the other, and a few with both. The 
 majority of successful first-year teachers known to 
 me prefer to start with script. They claim that it 
 is easier to pass from script to print than from print 
 to script. It is usual to devote two or three months 
 to script, then turn to print, so that by the middle 
 of the first term or half-year, the child shall be able 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 8l 
 
 to read out of a book, the preliminary work having 
 been done on the blackboard or from charts. 
 
 (3) Recognition, Representation, and Pronuncia- 
 tion of Phonetic Elements. — When we reach the stage 
 where words are analyzed into their individual 
 sounds, it is necessary to begin the use of diacritical 
 marks. If the language were phonetic and each 
 sound were represented by a single character, such 
 marks would be unnecessary. But in English we 
 have some forty sounds and only twenty-six charac- 
 ters to represent them. Our alphabet comes with 
 some modifications from the ancient Phoenicians. 
 The alphabet doubtless represented more or less 
 accurately the oral and written elements of the an- 
 cient language. But when we adopt this ancient. 
 Oriental alphabet and try to fit it to our modern 
 language with its new sounds, we find ourselves in 
 difficulty. A so-called scientific alphabet has been 
 prepared by the American Philological Association, 
 which provides a separate character for each sound. 
 This alphabet is used by the Standard Dictionary. 
 But its adoption has not become sufficiently general 
 to warrant its use in primary reading. There is 
 therefore no option but to fall back upon diacritical 
 marks. The extent to which these marks should 
 
82 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 be employed is a point upon which a wide diver- 
 gence of opinion exists. Many, like Sarah Louise 
 Arnold and Superintendent Brumbaugh, consider 
 them a necessary evil, to be tolerated only when their 
 presence is indispensable. Others, like Ward, have 
 built up very elaborate systems of marks, which 
 constitute essential features of their methods. 
 There are some hundreds of thousands of words 
 in the English dictionaries, but there are only 
 forty sounds, as we have seen. While it is well 
 to begin reading by teaching whole words, it is 
 manifestly impossible to learn to recognize each 
 word separately,' since there are so many that it 
 would require all the school time to learn them in 
 that way. An analysis shows that a comparatively 
 small number of phonetic combinations enter into 
 the composition of all words. These elements are 
 known as phonograms, and, after they have been 
 mastered, thousands of words not previously learned 
 may be read by the pupil. It is undoubtedly true 
 that children acquire unconsciously the laws of 
 pronunciation; and the writer is of those who 
 regard diacritical marks as, upon the whole, a 
 nuisance. We do not believe it is necessary to de- 
 face the text of a reading book by the use of any 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 83 
 
 marks whatever. New words may be taught in 
 columns at the beginning of a lesson, and in 
 these the individual sounds may be marked. We 
 are prepared to indorse the statement of Miss Arnold, 
 that diacritical marks should be used only when 
 they are necessary to pronounce words, and that 
 when children can pronounce without their assist- 
 ance, they should, by all means, be allowed to do so. 
 Marks are but means to an end, and if the end can 
 be reached as successfully without them as with 
 them, we must take counsel from common sense and 
 omit. 
 
 (4) Synthesis of Phonetic Elements into Words. — 
 A variety of exercises may be employed in mastering 
 the phonetic elements of our language. The be- 
 ginning will be analytic. Sight words have been 
 taught as wholes. These will be analyzed into their 
 constituent sounds. The elementary sounds will 
 then be separately pronounced and represented by 
 the proper diacritical marks. Daily drills will be 
 required to make this work thorough; for unless it 
 is well done, the time spent on it is wasted. To 
 vary the drill, elements may be combined again by 
 the children into significant words. This is what 
 Ward calls the "blend." Both the analytic and 
 
84 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 synthetic exercises should be a part of the daily drill. 
 Familiarity with diacritical marks may be imparted 
 by requiring pupils to mark known sounds in famil- 
 iar words, and by marking unfamiliar words and 
 requiring pupils to pronounce them. By the way 
 of test, the teacher may secure pleasing variety by 
 a sort of game in which pupils are required to pro- 
 nounce known words in new ways in accordance 
 with diacritical markings, e.g., Kat^; Kat^; Kat0; 
 Kat^; Kate; Kate; Kate; Kate; I saw men men 
 pet Pet. 
 
 (5) Meaning of Unfamiliar Words. — Most of the 
 words in the reading of the first year or two should, 
 as stated above, be chiefly such as are already 
 familiar to the child. But, as the primary school 
 is understood to cover the first four years, there 
 must necessarily be many new words in the reading 
 lessons. It is of the utmost importance that the 
 meaning of these be properly explained and illus- 
 trated, so that they may be interpreted by the child's 
 experience and imagination. This remark appHes 
 with especial emphasis to information lessons, such 
 as history, geography, nature, and even arithmetic. 
 Children can get no knowledge from books whose 
 words are enigmas; and frequently children fail in 
 
TfiGE ENDS OF READING 85 
 
 number work because they have not been properly 
 trained in arithmetical language. 
 
 (6) Spelling. — Word analysis and synthesis nat- 
 urally leads to spelling, which from this time for- 
 ward must receive careful and persistent attention. 
 During the first year, the spelling may be informal 
 and incidental. The child during this period is not 
 required to write much. But during the second 
 year simple exercises in spelling may be given. The 
 child has now learned to write his name, and is able 
 to do a Httle useful work in cop3dng and dictation. 
 For this work spelling is required. 
 
 3. Primary : Reading as Literature. — It is manifest 
 that the literary aspect of reading is a very different 
 thing from the mechanical aspect. The one has to 
 do with form, the other with content. The one is 
 a tool; the other is the very substance of culture 
 and an end in itself. Literature is a form of beauty, 
 like a Raphael Madonna, and "beauty is its own 
 excuse for being." 
 
 (i) What to Read. — Dr. Hall in the following 
 paragraph does not overstate the importance of the 
 subject-matter of our reading in the schools : — 
 
 "Among the most serious of the pedagogic prob- 
 lems of the present are, therefore, I believe, first, the 
 
86 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 selection in the focus of the best inteUigence, of the 
 best reading material for children and youth; sec- 
 ondly, the experimental gradations and often trans- 
 forming adaptation of it, each to fit age and grade ; 
 and thirdly, the elaboration of the most effective 
 ways of teaching it with all energy and force." ^ 
 
 It would be quite impossible, even if it were de- 
 sirable, to undertake here to lay down a specific 
 course of reading appropriate for the different grades 
 and ages of school children. The material is so 
 abundant and men's tastes, culture, and habits of 
 thought differ so widely, that no list of books which 
 any human being, however gifted, could select, 
 would meet the approval of a majority of educators. 
 What one can do, however, is to indicate the princi- 
 ples which should guide us in our selections. All 
 will admit that the mere caprice of the schoolmaster 
 is not a sound basis of choice, nor is the opinion of 
 any adult to be relied upon, however excellent it 
 may be as to the literary quality of books in pre- 
 scribing the reading matter for children. If inter- 
 est is any criterion of the success of educational work, 
 the children themselves must be consulted in the 
 choice of reading. Of course, children's tastes are 
 
 1 How to Teach Reading, G. Stanley Hall, Heath & Co., 1886, p. 34. 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 87 
 
 not the only basis of choice, for, undirected, these are 
 satisfied with trashy and harmful books quite as 
 readily as with good ones. The adult may be al- 
 lowed to decide what kind of reading is required to 
 fit the child for "complete Hving" and may also be 
 the final authority on the literary quality of the 
 books; but among the materials thus accepted for 
 school use by the adult judgment, the child should 
 be allowed free choice, governed only by his own 
 taste and his own sense of need and fitness. 
 
 (a) Interest. — A number of investigations have 
 been made in recent years that throw much light 
 on this reading problem ; the results, though meagre 
 and inconclusive, indicate the direction in which our 
 efforts must tend if we are to substitute a scien- 
 tific basis of choice for a dogmatic one. A study of 
 children's stories by Clara Vostrovsky,^ shows that 
 there is a vast difference between a child's way of 
 saying a thing and an adult's way, even' when the 
 latter is writing for children. After quoting a story 
 as written /of a child, and the same as told by a child. 
 Miss Vostrovsky says: "In comparing the two, the 
 difference between them is at once apparent. In 
 the child's story no sentiment is expressed ; nor are 
 
 ^ Studies in Education, Stanford University, 1896-1897, p. 15. 
 
88 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 his own feelings referred to in any way. There is 
 httle of the aesthetic, no description of dress or per- 
 sons ; and not general, but quite definite, names are 
 used by him. On the whole, the child gives facts, 
 and lets life itself speak for him." The various ele- 
 ments of children's stories predominate in the follow- 
 ing order: action, names, speech, appearance, place, 
 time, possession, feeling, dress, cesthetic details, senti- 
 ment, moral qualities. The last five combined con- 
 stitute a mere trifle as compared with the element 
 called "action." The inference drawn from these 
 facts is that "stories for children should be true 
 stories of child life, dealing with the holidays, etc., 
 . . . and should be mainly confined to action, with 
 little description of persons or feelings." 
 
 It is proper to add that the age of the children 
 in this experiment was from six to eight. In a study 
 of children's reading tastes, made by the same 
 author,^ the conclusion is reached that there exists 
 the most marked difference between the sexes. 
 "Girls prefer domestic stories, especially stories 
 about children like themselves, while boys care more 
 for books of adventure. . . . No boy confesses 
 to a purely girl's story, while girls frankly do to an 
 
 ^ The Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 6, p. 523. 
 
\ 
 
 \ THE ENDS OF READING 89 
 
 iiiterest in stories about boys. Women writers seem 
 to appeal more to giris, men writers to boys." 
 
 ]\ir. Clark Wissler, director of the psychological 
 laboratory in the Ohio State University, has made 
 an interesting inquiry into the interests of pupils 
 in the reading of the elementary schools.^ Children 
 were asked to write the subjects of all the reading 
 lessons of the preceding year that they could remem- 
 ber; to state which of these lessons they liked the 
 best, and why ; and to name the book they would 
 buy if they could have only one. Papers were col- 
 lected from 1950 children, — 1060 girls and 890 
 boys. 
 
 As to the kind of lessons remembered, the returns 
 show that the first is always remembered; nearly 
 all the lessons remembered are in terms of experi- 
 ence the child can realize in himself ; the lessons re- 
 membered most are especially natural or lifelike. 
 The lessons that are remembered by none of the 
 children are the merely instructive lesson, the moral 
 lesson, and abstract poems concerning duty, happi- 
 ness, and the like. 
 
 The returns on the third question confirm sex 
 
 ^ " The Interests of Children in the Reading of the Elementary Schools," 
 The Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 5, p. 523. 
 
90 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 difference indicated by Miss Vostrovsky. Mr. 
 Wissler says: "Among the works of fiction chosen 
 by girls are many books that portray the home-life. 
 . . . Many boys prefer fiction reciting the exploits 
 of the adventurer in the garb of the scout, the ex- 
 plorer, the soldier, etc." Among the additional 
 conclusions of the study are these : — 
 
 The literature most appreciated presents the true, 
 the beautiful, and the heroic and the good in a con- 
 crete way. 
 
 The complete narrative makes a lasting impres- 
 sion, while the story in outline is treated as unin- 
 teresting. 
 
 A further study on this subject made by Professor 
 E. A. Kirkpatrick confirms some of the preceding 
 conclusions and brings out a number of new points. 
 For instance, the sexual differences already noted 
 are strongly emphasized by Professor Kirkpatrick. 
 "As to the kind of reading," he says, "the sexual 
 differences are most marked, and the degree of dif- 
 ference in all grades is surprisingly large. . . . Boys 
 read about twice as much history and travel as girls 
 and only about two-thirds as much poetry and 
 stories. . . . Teachers are almost unanimous in 
 saying that boys care more for history and stories 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 91 
 
 of travel and adventure, while girls care more for 
 stories of simple life. . . ." ^ 
 
 The dozen most popular authors or books, accord- 
 ing to these returns, stand in the following order: 
 I. "Black Beauty"; 2. Louisa Alcott's "Little 
 Men," "Little Women," etc.; 3. Stowe's "Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin"; 4. "Robinson Crusoe"; 5. Long- 
 fellow's poems; 6. Burnett's "Little Lord Faunt- 
 leroy," "Editha's Burglar," "Sara Crewe"; 7. Dick- 
 ens's "Old Curiosity Shop," "Oliver Twist," etc.; 
 8. Andrews's "Seven Little Sisters," "Ten Boys," 
 etc. ; 9. "Beautiful Joe"; 10. Scott's "Ivanhoe," 
 "Lady of the Lake," etc.; 11. Wiggin's "Birds' 
 Christmas Carol," etc. ; 12. Hughes's "Tom Brown." 
 
 Among the general conclusions are the following : — 
 
 "Objective incidents, actions, and specific terms 
 are what the child notices, and these rather than 
 general terms, subjective states, . . . are what 
 impress children in a story." 
 
 "Interest in fairy stories is at a maximum at about 
 nine years of age, . . . while at about twelve inter- 
 est in history begins to dominate, at first in the form 
 of biography and pioneer history stories." 
 
 1 " Children's Reading," by E. A. Kirkpatrick, The Northwestern 
 Monthly, December, 1898, January and March, 1899. J. H. Miller, 
 Lincoln, Neb. 
 
92 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 "There is nothing more certain than that boys of 
 thirteen or fourteen are especially interested in ad- 
 venture, . . . while quieter stories and sentimental 
 stories are often preferred by girls of this age." 
 
 Summarizing the conclusions of all these studies, 
 we have the following criteria to govern teachers and 
 principals in the choice of books and authors in the 
 making and editing of school readers : — 
 
 1. A child of from six to eight years of age appre- 
 ciates no sentiment, does not care for subjective 
 analysis or description, has little aesthetic taste, 
 wants specific names (not general), and is satisfied 
 with concrete facts which speak for themselves. 
 
 2. The elements of a story which appeal to chil- 
 dren of four, six, and eight years of age follow in 
 importance this order: action, names, speech, appear- 
 ance, place, time, possession, etc. 
 
 3. There is an important sex difference in the 
 reading taste. Girls prefer domestic stories written 
 by women, while boys, especially at about thirteen 
 or fourteen, love stories of adventure and heroism 
 written by men. 
 
 4. Only those reading lessons make a lasting im- 
 pression upon the child which are in terms of his 
 own experience. 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 93 
 
 5. Children detest preaching or moralizing, pre- 
 ferring to be taught indirectly by concrete stories. 
 
 6. Children require complete narratives. Frag- 
 mentary poems and stories in outline are treated as 
 uninteresting. 
 
 7. Children are fond of stories that treat of ani- 
 mals, particularly those that represent animals as 
 speaking and feeling like human beings. They are 
 also deeply interested in stories about children. 
 
 8. Young children care little for humor, but ap- 
 preciate the pathetic. 
 
 9. Interest in fairy tales culminates at nine. 
 
 10. At twelve interest in history begins to domi- 
 nate, biography and pioneer history bemg the forms 
 at first preferred. 
 
 11. Mere information has no attraction for the 
 child. Reading must appeal to his feelings and 
 imagination and possess human interest in order to 
 make a deep and lasting impression upon him. 
 
 (b) Other Qualities. — Such are a few of the quali- 
 ties that seem to be demanded in our reading mate- 
 rial in the light of our meagre knowledge of the child's 
 nature and development. 
 
 In addition to these psychological tests of reading 
 matter there are a few pedagogical ones, based on 
 
94 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 common sense and practical experience in the class 
 room; and these, it will be seen, in every instance 
 confirm and supplement the criteria already enu- 
 merated. 
 
 Every teacher knows from experience that one 
 requisite of a successful reading lesson is that the 
 subject-matter shall come within the comprehension 
 of the pupil. It must not be abstruse or abstract, 
 nor must it deal with matters entirely outside the 
 experience of childhood. This does not mean that 
 children are wholly incapable of appreciating the 
 merits of genuine literature. On the contrary, a 
 child of seven can understand portions of the story 
 of Hiawatha in the language of the poet ; in fact, I 
 believe children greatly prefer the original poetic 
 form. There is an indefinable charm in the poetic 
 diction, the unique repetition of phrases, which at- 
 tracts children of all ages. In order to come within 
 the comprehension of our pupils, reading books 
 need not necessarily be commonplace and matter- 
 of-fact. The subject-matter should be of such a 
 grade of difficulty that the pupil has some work to 
 do, some effort to make, in order to appreciate it. 
 Otherwise, there is no educative activity involved 
 in his reading. As Mr. Chubb says, "The child will 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 95 
 
 leap many a forbidding word-fence, if he is genuinely 
 interested in the subject-matter." It would appear, 
 therefore, that the so-called lessons of information 
 on science, history, and geography, often found in 
 grade readers, are out of place. This sort of informa- 
 tion should be imparted through supplementary 
 reading in connection with other subjects, and the 
 reading period proper should be devoted to the study 
 of real literature. Dr. Hall sums up this part of 
 our subject in an admirable paragraph : — 
 
 "It is assumed, then, that we must have stated 
 or stataric readers, uniformly punctuated, contain- 
 ing nothing merely petty or individual, and its read- 
 ing must not be degraded as means to other ends, 
 but must be of central importance, and the best test 
 of the teacher and the school work. We must have 
 regard chiefly, at first, in compiling readers and in 
 using them in school, not to method, as we have 
 been too wont to do, but to subject-matter, to con- 
 tent, and its wide bearings. Nothing, again, brings 
 out good reading like the comprehension of it, in- 
 volving direct innervation from the higher cerebral 
 centres. Yet we must here avoid selections the full 
 meaning of which can be immediately comprehended 
 and conveyed. The mind must grow slowly up to 
 
96 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 it by many repetitions; it must be felt and its drift 
 vaguely caught before as a condition of the correct 
 and healthy action of the intellect upon it." ^ 
 
 The studies quoted above and others like them 
 were undertaken to ascertain what is normally in- 
 teresting to children at different ages. There are 
 two or three possible attitudes to be taken with ref- 
 erence to children. We may assume that their 
 natural instincts and tendencies are upon the whole 
 good and a safe guide for educational method and 
 policy. Or we may assume, as the old theologic 
 ideal did, that the child is all wrong and the aim of 
 education is "to repair the ruins of our first parents 
 by regaining to know God aright, and out of that 
 knowledge to love, imitate, and be like him."^ Or 
 we may borrow some philosophical or sociological 
 ideal to which the child is to conform. But whether 
 we take the one position or the other, a knowledge 
 of what actually is the natural bent of the infant 
 soul is necessary. 
 
 In this matter of reading, shall we trust altogether 
 the interests of the children, or shall we disregard 
 altogether their desires and compel them to conform 
 
 1 How to Teach Reading, G. Stanley Hall, D. C. Heath & Co., Bos- 
 ton, 1886, p. 26. 
 
 ^ Milton, Tractate on Education. 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 97 
 
 to what we think is best for them, or shall we take 
 some middle ground? I have already indicated a 
 possible mode of procedure by demanding that the 
 adult's judgment shall prevail as to the literary qual- 
 ity of books. After excluding all unworthy material, 
 there is still enough left to satisfy almost any socio- 
 logical or philosophical ideal ; and within the bounds 
 thus set the child's liberty of choice should be re- 
 spected. Otherwise we can have no guarantee that 
 the pupil will have any genuine interest in his read- 
 ing; and from the point of view of the teacher's 
 experience, a reading lesson cannot be successful 
 unless it is interesting. 
 
 (c) Adaptations. — Many productions possess the 
 qualities children demand, but are nevertheless upon 
 the whole unsuitable for school use. These can 
 often be made to fit school conditions by judicious 
 " adaptation." Some literary gems are so perfect that 
 it would be a sacrilege to touch them. These are 
 not to be discussed but committed to memory. No 
 one would wish to tamper with Gray's "Elegy" or 
 Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade." But 
 it might be quite possible to adapt one of Andersen's 
 fairy tales or a Greek myth in such a way as to render 
 it more acceptable to the heart of an American child. 
 
98 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 . One method of adapting such material consists 
 in repeating stories to children and securing oral or 
 written reproductions from them. By comparing 
 these reproductions with the originals it is easy to 
 ascertain which elements possess interest and which 
 do not. Parts of the story that are omitted by all 
 children evidently are not interesting; while those 
 portions which are reproduced by all or most possess 
 the greatest interest. In rewriting the story the 
 interesting material only is employed, and in this 
 way the material is "really and closely fitted to the 
 minds and hearts of the children." ^ 
 
 These remarks, however, must not be understood 
 to apply to any stories that have reached a classic 
 version. "The easy-word transliteralist has much 
 to answer for in his alterations of classic story into 
 one and two syllabled absurdities for the tender 
 digestion of the child." ^ If a given piece of litera- 
 ture is too difficult for a given grade, the remedy is 
 not an easy paraphrase, but the postponement of 
 the reading until a later grade. 
 
 Finally, let me add that much of the staple literary 
 diet of the primary grades should be poetry, because 
 
 1 Hall, How to Teach Reading, p. 32 ; see Old Time Stories, by E. Louise 
 Smythe, Werner & Co., Chicago, 1896. 
 
 2 Chubb, The Teaching of English, The Macmillan Co., 1909, p. 86. 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 99 
 
 in the literary evolution of mankind verse precedes 
 prose, and the child's apprehension of the universe 
 is essentially poetic. "When history and other in- 
 formation studies have done their work on the in- 
 formation side, poetry may do its on the imagina- 
 tive and emotional side." ^ 
 
 4. Grammar: The Mechanics of Reading. — In the 
 lower grammar grades the phonetic drills should be 
 continued, and in the higher should gradually lead 
 to the rendering of certain typical forms of literature 
 with artistic effect. The meaning and use and spell- 
 ing of words is of course also continued. By this 
 time, however, the purely colloquial vocabulary gives 
 way to the diction found in works of standard authors, 
 and henceforth we add to the objects of reading already 
 enumerated an appreciative study of such works 
 with a view of cultivating a taste for good literature. 
 After the third school year, the pupil should have 
 sufficient facility in reading to use it in acquiring 
 knowledge. That is, reading ceases to be chiefly 
 a tool-making operation and is gradually trans- 
 formed into a tool-using process. Almost from the 
 first day of school, drills in the recitation of good prose 
 and poetry, with clearness, emphasis, dignity, and 
 ^ Chubb, op. cit., p. 83. 
 
100 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 impressiveness, should form a regular adjunct of the 
 reading exercise. 
 
 Another exercise that now becomes necessary is 
 the study of the derivation of words and the mean- 
 ing and use of affixes. These bear the same relation 
 to the study of the meaning of words that phonetic 
 drills bear to pronunciation. 
 
 Gradually, as a means of emancipating himself 
 from the supervision of the teacher, the pupil must 
 learn the use of the dictionary. When he comes 
 upon a new word he must learn to ascertain its 
 meaning without assistance. The diacritical marks 
 which he learned in the primary school wiU enable 
 him to use the dictionary also as a standard of pro- 
 nunciation. 
 
 (i) Supplementary Reading. — Within recent years, 
 especially since the "enrichment" of the course of 
 study suggested by President Eliot and the Com- 
 mittee of Ten, supplementary reading has formed 
 an important part of the school programme. Instead 
 of puttering for an entire year over a single primer 
 or first reader, the first-year classes in a good school 
 will read half a dozen or more books. In every 
 subsequent grade supplementary readers in litera- 
 ture are provided, and in the appropriate grades 
 
THE ENDS OF READING loi 
 
 also readers in history, geography, nature, hygiene, 
 etc. The object of supplementary reading may be 
 summed up under three heads: Information, In- 
 spiration, Taste. 
 
 (a) Information. — The word supplementary im- 
 plies that something is incomplete which may be 
 made so by this kind of reading. There is first the 
 incompleteness of knowledge. One has not time in 
 the regular lessons of the class room to give the pupil 
 that full and many-sided information which he needs. 
 Even if the teacher had the time, the necessity for 
 self-activity and self-direction on the part of the 
 children would have to be met. The teacher is but 
 a temporary guide and helper ; in a very few years 
 his assistance will be withdrawn, and then the pupil 
 must depend for the rest of his life upon himself. 
 Therefore, as it has been said of old, the principal 
 duty of the pedagogue is to make himself useless. 
 This he can do only by training the pupil as soon as 
 possible to take care of himself. Supplementary 
 reading is one way of contributing to this important 
 result. Here the pupil may read an entire chapter 
 or book by himself, being held responsible at the 
 conclusion for some account of what he has gathered. 
 Or he may be told to get information of a certain sort 
 
I02 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 and be required to find it and work it up for himself. 
 Such reading therefore supplements the knowledge of 
 the textbook or of oral teaching by adding new facts 
 and new points of view ; and it supplements the teach- 
 ing method by throwing the pupil upon his own resources 
 and thus contributing to his intellectual emancipation. 
 Q}) Inspiration. — There are some books that are 
 valuable not so much for the facts they contain as 
 for certain emotions and enthusiasms they arouse. 
 Such are the books of John Burroughs, Gilbert 
 White, and Thompson Seton in nature study. 
 Books of this sort may properly be included in the 
 supplementary list. In fact, the writer is inclined 
 to the opinion that we have overestimated the 
 knowledge value of books and undervalued the in- 
 spirational function. "I actually found out,'' writes 
 Hugh Miller,^ "for myself that the art of reading is 
 the art of finding stories in books. Those intoler- 
 able nuisances, the useful knowledge books, had not 
 yet arisen, like tenebrious stars, on the educational 
 horizon, to darken the world." In this class fall 
 works of the imagination, — stories, fables, fairy- 
 tales, myths, legends, etc., all of which are intensely 
 interesting to children. 
 
 ^ My Schools and Schoolmasters. 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 103 
 
 (c) Taste. — Finally, supplementary reading of the 
 right kind cultivates a taste for good literature 
 by supplying standard books so entertainingly 
 written that the pupil will want more of the same 
 kind. The taste grows by what it feeds on. Our 
 friends, the Herbartians, have a saying that it is 
 better to send the pupil out into the world with a 
 definite and well-formed interest than to fill him up 
 with a required quantity of facts. So, if we form 
 a taste for good reading, we need have no fear for 
 the future education of the pupil. 
 
 5. Grammar: Reading as Literature. — (i) What 
 to Read. —Let it be repeated here that reading has 
 by this time become a means of gaining and giving 
 knowledge and pleasure from books. The pupils 
 are from ten to fourteen years of age. The mechani- 
 cal difficulties have been largely overcome, and a 
 certain fluency has been acquired. The intelligence 
 and capacity of the pupil have reached a stage of 
 development which makes it possible to read litera- 
 ture of good quality, of considerable length, and of 
 a fair degree of difficulty. Complete masterpieces 
 are demanded, both by common sense and the find- 
 ings of psychological research. History of pioneers 
 and other heroic characters is a dominating interest 
 
I04 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 at the age of twelve and onward. "It is this litera- 
 ture of distinctly epic type that will interest him 
 more than any other, and be good for him. Adven- 
 ture and romance, heroism and daring, the wonders 
 and excitement of travel and exploration, of march 
 and siege, — upon these we may feed him. ... So 
 we shall broaden his world and enlarge his sympa- 
 thies . . . before he begins that adolescent work 
 of introspection and self-analysis which tends to 
 contract for a time his interests and sympathies." ^ 
 
 Among the specific works which may be read with 
 profit in the grammar grades, the following may 
 be mentioned: Kingsley's "Greek Heroes"; Haw- 
 thorne's "Wonder Book" ; Lamb's " Adventures of 
 Ulysses" ; Ruskin's "King of the Golden River"; 
 also the following poems: "Casablanca"; "Lucy 
 Gray"; "The Wreck of the Hesperus"; "Miles 
 Standish" ; "Tales of a Wayside Inn" ; "The Lays 
 of Ancient Rome"; "Sohraband Rustum"; "The 
 Merchant of Venice"; "Julius Caesar." 
 
 We may also include some humor. The young 
 child lacks this sense ; but in the middle and higher 
 grades the pupil will appreciate the works of Mark 
 Twain, Holmes, Saxe, Hood, Stockton, and Kipling. 
 
 1 Chubb, The Teaching of English, The Macmillan Co., 1909, p. 125. 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 105 
 
 Three classes of works should, says Mr. Chubb, be 
 excluded from the elementary school ; namely : 
 those that deal reflectively with the sentiment of 
 adult love, e.g. "Enoch Arden"; those that are 
 surrounded with an atmosphere of gloom, e.g. some 
 of Hawthorne's stories ; those that lead to the solemn 
 and darker mysteries of life, e.g. "The Christmas 
 Carol"! 
 
 6. The High School. — The only object of reading 
 in the high school is the study and appreciation of 
 literature. This, however, implies several subor- 
 dinate aims, such as the meaning of words and sen- 
 tences, and the principles of grammar, rhetoric, and 
 composition. The requirements of the College En- 
 trance Examination Board for the Middle States 
 and Maryland are a fair illustration of the scope 
 and aim of reading in the secondary schools of the 
 country. The following analysis of the require- 
 ments in English are quoted from the Board's Plan 
 of Organization ; ^ — 
 
 " (a) Reading. — A certain number of books will 
 be set for reading. The candidate will be required 
 to present evidence of a general knowledge of the 
 
 ^Op. cit., p. 129. 
 
 ^ Plan of Organization of the College Entrance Examination Board for 
 the Middle States and Maryland, adopted May 20, 1900, N. Y., 19CX). 
 
io6 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 subject-matter, and to answer simple questions on 
 the lives of the authors. The form of examination 
 will usually be the writing of a paragraph or two on 
 each of several topics, to be chosen by the candidate 
 from a considerable number — perhaps ten or 
 fifteen — set before him in the examination paper. 
 The treatment of these topics is designed to test 
 the candidate's power of clear and accurate expres- 
 sion, and will call for only a general knowledge of 
 the substance of the books. The candidate is ex- 
 pected to read intelligently all the books prescribed. 
 He is expected not to know them minutely, but to 
 have fresh in mind their most important parts. In 
 every case knowledge of the hook will be regarded as less 
 important than the ability to write good English. In 
 preparation for this part of the requirement, it is 
 important that the candidate shall have been in- 
 structed in the fundamental principles of rhetoric." 
 
 Books, 1 901-1902 : Merchant of Venice; Pope's 
 Iliad, Books I, VI, XXII, XXIV ; Sir Roger de Cov- 
 erley Papers; The Vicar of Wakefield; The Ancient 
 Mariner ; Ivanhoe; The Last of the Mohicans; The 
 Princess; The Vision of Sir Launfal; Silas Mar- 
 ner = 10, 
 
 " (6) Study and Practice. — This part of the exami- 
 
THE ENDS OF READING 107 
 
 nation presupposes the thorough study of each 
 of the works named below. The examination will 
 be upon subject-matter, form, and structure. In 
 addition, the candidate may be required to answer 
 questions involving the essentials of English grammar, 
 and questions on the leading facts in those periods 
 of English literary history to which the prescribed 
 works belong." 
 
 Books, 1901-1905 : Macbeth; Lycidas, Comus, 
 L' Allegro, II Penseroso; Speech on Conciliation; 
 Macaulay's Essays on Milton and Addison = 4. 
 
 Recommendations : — 
 
 "2. That the prescribed books be regarded as a 
 basis for such wider courses of English study as the 
 schools may arrange for themselves." 
 
 "4. That a certain amount of outside reading, 
 chiefly of poetry, fiction, biography, and history, be 
 encouraged throughout the entire school course." 
 
 "7. That each of the books prescribed for study 
 be taught with reference to — 
 
 "a. The language, including the meaning of words 
 and sentences, the important qualities of style, and 
 the important allusions ; 
 
 "5. The plan of work, i.e. its structure and method ; 
 
 "c. The place of the work in literary history, the 
 
lo8 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 circumstances of its production, and the life of its 
 author." 
 
 These provisions remain in force to-day substan- 
 tially as they were first adopted twelve years ago. 
 The only change is in naming a larger list of books 
 from which to choose. The requirements for 1910- 
 191 1 prescribe forty books for "reading," ten of 
 which must be selected, and six books for "study 
 and practice," four of which must be chosen.^ 
 
 ^ The Board's examinations are now accepted as a satisfactory basis 
 for admission by every college and university in the United States ; 
 but some colleges still continue to hold their own examinations. In 
 June, 1 91 1, the Board examined 4096 candidates, while between five 
 and six thousand candidates took the separate examinations. — See 
 Educational Review, Feburary, 191 2, "The College Entrance Examina- 
 tion Board," by Thomas S. Fiske, Columbia University. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 METHODS OF TEACHING READING 
 
 I. The History of Method in Reading. — The his- 
 tory of method in reading naturally falls under two 
 heads, — reading material and how to teach reading. 
 
 (i) Reading Material. — The modern era in the 
 pedagogy of reading begins with the Reformation. 
 The first school readers in this period were distinctly 
 religious. One by Ickelsamer, for instance, con- 
 tained the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the 
 Lord's Prayer, the Magnificat, and the Benedictus. 
 Basedow is credited with a reform in the shape of a 
 primer in which the children read of things pleasant 
 to eat and to see, such as almonds, raisins, and apples. 
 They learned German and Latin by means of play, 
 and were rewarded with sweetmeats when they did 
 good work. Eberhard von Rochow issued a read- 
 ing book in 1776 containing moral tales, illustrat- 
 ing the virtues of poHteness, modesty, and the hke. 
 The author advised that the simple sounds be taught 
 first in connection with the written and printed 
 
 109 
 
no THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 names of familiar things. He laid emphasis upon 
 oral work as a preparation. His book reached a 
 circulation of one hundred thousand. Another 
 primer by Christian Felix Weisze, issued at Leipzig 
 in 1772, contained short stories, fables, songs, 
 prayers, and little verses. The gradual change 
 from the purely religious book to the secular ideal 
 was not effected without earnest and bitter contro- 
 versy. It is said that in one instance the people rose 
 in insurrection because the Creed and the Lord's 
 Prayer had been omitted from the primer. 
 
 Such is the history of German reading books. In 
 the United States a similar evolution occurred. 
 Here, also, the religious ideal dominated the early 
 schools. The New England Primer was the princi- 
 pal school book for more than a century up to the 
 year 1800. The origin of this remarkable book is 
 traced back to a primer issued by Henry VIII in 
 1534. Henry's primer contained "certain prayers 
 and goodly meditations, very necessary for all people 
 that understand not the Latin tongue." In 1679 
 Benjamin Harris issued in London The Protestant 
 Tutor, which was a school reader. Coming to Boston 
 a little later, he reissued his primer in America in 
 1685. Some time between 1687 and 1690 it was 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 
 
 III 
 
 reissued again under the title of the New England 
 Primer. It soon became the most important book 
 in the colonies. 
 
 The copy which 
 I have before me 
 was printed 
 about the year 
 1785, a hundred 
 years after the 
 first edition. It 
 contains a por- 
 trait of George 
 Washington, the 
 A B C's, words 
 of one, two, and 
 three syllables, a 
 series of illus- 
 trated couplets 
 
 In Aciam^s Fall 
 We finned all. 
 
 Thy Li re to mend. 
 This Book attend. 
 
 The Cat doth play. 
 And after flay* 
 
 A Dog: will bite 
 AThiefatNight* 
 
 An Eagle' flight 
 Is out of fight. 
 
 The idle Fool 
 Is whipt at SchcoL 
 
 Fig. 9. 
 
 fsee Fig o) ex- -^ P^S^ from the New England Primer, actual 
 
 size. 
 
 tracts from the 
 
 Bible, a "Cradle H3nim" by Watts, prayers, religious 
 exhortations for the young, the Catechism, and a 
 "Dialogue between Christ, Youth, and the Devil." 
 This book reflected in a marvellous way the spirit of 
 the age that produced it, and " contributed, perhaps 
 
112 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 more than any other book except the Bible, to the 
 moulding of those sturdy generations that gave to 
 America its liberty and its institutions." ^ 
 
 Another important American school book was 
 Noah Webster's Speller, issued near the end of the 
 eighteenth century. This speller is still in use and 
 is said to have reached a circulation of a hundred 
 million copies. "The edition in use previous to the 
 revision of 183 1 comprized 168 pages, 14 of which 
 are introductory; 66 contain words taken from the 
 dictionary; 29 pages contain the names of persons, 
 places, etc. ; 47 contain reading lessons. . . . The 
 edition pubhshed in 183 1 contains several poems, a 
 moral catechist, including abstract treatises on 
 humility, mercy, anger, justice, gratitude ; . . . pre- 
 cepts concerning the social relations, in which the 
 young man, young woman, husband, wife, parent, 
 and child are all briefly instructed and admon- 
 ished." ^ 
 
 Among other interesting devices formerly used 
 for teaching children to read are the horn-hook, 
 battledore, and sampler.^ The horn-book dates in 
 
 1 From the preface of Ginn & Co.'s reprint. 
 
 2R. R. Reeder, Historical Development of School Readers, Mac- 
 millan, 1900. 
 
 ^ See Reeder, op. cit. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 113 
 
 England from about 1450. It was a paddle 5 J inches 
 long and 2J inches wide, with a handle. On one 
 face of the paddle was pasted a piece of paper, which 
 was protected by a transparent sheet of horn. There 
 was printed on the paper first a cross, then the alpha- 
 bet, large and small, next a line of vowels and com- 
 binations of these with consonants. Below was the 
 exorcism, "In the name of the Father and of the 
 Sonne and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." Then fol- 
 lowed the Lord's Prayer and the Roman numerals. 
 The horn-book was used a 'so in the Dame Schools 
 of New England. The chili trudged to school with 
 the horn-book slung from his girdle by a string at- 
 tached to the handle. Hence this couplet : — 
 
 " Then after that he takes a pretty pride 
 To wear the horn-book dangling by his side." ^ 
 
 The earliest horn-books had the alphabet or a part 
 of it arranged in the form of a cross ; hence " Criss 
 Cross" and "Criss Cross Row" came to be a syno- 
 nym for alphabet. 
 
 In England children were fond of the game of 
 battledore and shuttlecock, in which they employed 
 a square paddle resembling a horn-book. Hence 
 by and by the alphabet was painted or impressed 
 
 ^ Hombye's Horn-Book, London, 1622. 
 
114 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 or cut on one side of it, and the battledore served 
 the double purpose of a book and a bat. In time 
 it became the synonym for horn-book and primer. 
 WiUis's Current Notes for October, 1855, has this 
 paragraph: "Horn-books are now so completely 
 superseded by the Battledore and the various forms 
 of 'Reading Made Easy' that they are rarely met 
 with, and few persons believe that such was formerly 
 the means adopted to teach the young idea how to 
 shoot." 1 
 
 The sampler was a piece of embroidery done as 
 a sample of skill in needlework. In New England 
 it served the purpose of a horn-book for many genera- 
 tions of little girls. It usually contained the alpha- 
 bet, the Lord's Prayer, hymns, original verses, etc., 
 and the name and date. The writer is permitted to 
 copy the following contents of a sampler which is 
 an heirloom in the family of Hon. Cyrus C. Miller, 
 President of Bronx Borough, New York City : — 
 
 Alphabet in large script. 
 
 Line of embroidery. 
 
 Alphabet in large capitals. 
 
 Line of embroidery. 
 
 Numbers from i to 16. 
 
 ^ Reeder, Historical Development of School Readers, Macmillan, 1909, p, 25. 
 
METHODS OF TEACfflNG READING 115 
 
 Alphabet in small script. 
 
 Line. 
 
 Alphabet in small print. 
 
 Line. 
 iHow blest the Maid whom circling years improve 
 Her God the object of her warmest Love 
 Who sees her Parents Heart exulting high 
 And the fond tear stands sparkling in their eye. 
 
 Line. 
 
 Picture of a house. 
 
 Line of grass. 
 
 Mary Caroline Allison Aged 10 years, N. York 
 1818. 
 
 Surrounding all a conventionalized flower border. 
 
 Size 18 by 16 inches. 
 
 (2) Method. — For many centuries the alphabetic 
 method held exclusive sway. By this plan pupils 
 are taught in various ways the names of the letters, 
 then by learning to spell and pronounce the words 
 they learn to read. The objections to this procedure 
 are now obvious. The names of the letters have no 
 relation to their power or significance as elements of 
 words. To a child, d-o-g spells deogee, as Dr. Hall 
 has well said, and not dog; so far as any clew to pro- 
 nunciation is concerned, the letters might as well be 
 
ii6 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Greek — delta-omicron-gamma. Yet, arbitrary and 
 slow as this method is, we must admit that the chil- 
 dren did somehow learn to read by it. 
 
 The first writer to protest against the folly and 
 waste of the spelling method was Ickelsamer, who 
 published a primer in 1534 in which the phonic 
 method was advocated. Instead of the name of the 
 letter, the child first learned its sound; and the 
 author printed with each letter the picture of an 
 animal whose voice or cry resembled the sound of 
 the letter. Thus m was accompanied by a cow, r by 
 a dog. The oral word was analyzed, and the pupil 
 pointed to the pictures which represented the various 
 sounds of the word. Unfortunately, Ickelsamer's 
 reform was allowed to lapse into ''innocuous desue- 
 tude," and for several centuries nothing more is 
 heard of the phonic method. After him came Buno 
 (1650) and Basedow (1774), each of whom had some 
 special device for teaching by the alphabetic method. 
 Buno printed his letters in the form of animals to 
 facilitate learning. Basedow played games, and in 
 his school bakery had sweet cakes and bread baked 
 in the form of letters, so that the most doltish child 
 "graduated from an alphabet diet of four weeks as 
 an accomplished a-b-c-darian." ^ We may add here 
 
 1 G. Stanley Hall, How to Teach Reading, D. C Heath & Co., 1897. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING ny 
 
 that the alphabetic method was forbidden by law 
 in Prussia in 1872, and several other German states 
 have since followed. 
 
 Pestalozzi had a phonic method, but it was so 
 exceedingly mechanical and void of ideas that he 
 himself lost faith in it. It was a word-building method, 
 which begins with a single letter and by prefixing or 
 adding other letters, forms a series of words, e.g., 
 a, an, and, land, Pestalozzi's building was purely 
 phonic, and did not even require words as the result 
 of the successive buildings, e.g., g, ge, geb, geha, 
 gebad, gebade, gebadet. 
 
 Comenius and Ratichius advocated the so-called 
 write-read method in the seventeenth century. It 
 combines the teaching of writing and reading into 
 one process. Plato seems to assume its prevalence 
 in his day when he says the young "ought to be oc- 
 cupied with their letters until they are able to read 
 and write." Quintilian describes it in detail. The 
 child, he says in his Institutes of Oratory, must not 
 learn the names and order of letters until he learns 
 their shapes. Letters are cut on a board, so that the 
 pupil may trace their form in wax. This require- 
 ment of Quintilian's is in accordance with the latest 
 teachings of psychology, which says that care must 
 
Ii8 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 be taken to give a child just the right kind of motor 
 experience when he learns to write. The read-write 
 method is to-day common in Germany, France, Eng- 
 land, and the United States. 
 
 It remained for Jacotot, a Frenchman, to give us 
 the analytic method of teaching reading. This starts 
 with the principle that the mind proceeds from the 
 whole to its parts and from the known to the un- 
 known. In his teaching he would begin with Fene- 
 lon's Telemaque, and have the children learn the 
 first sentence, repeating it after the teacher, word 
 by word, until the whole had been learned. Thus : — 
 
 Calypso 
 
 Calypso ne 
 
 Calypso ne pouvait 
 
 Calypso ne pouvait se consoler. 
 The sentence was then written by the children 
 from copy. Here we have the germ of the present- 
 day methods which begin with a hterary whole and 
 proceed from sentence to word, from word to letter 
 and sound. The word-image and thought are of the 
 first importance. The chief merit of the system is that 
 it begins with ideas, with worthy content capable of 
 arousing the interest of the child ; and by this means 
 the image of the word is impressed upon the memory. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 
 
 119 
 
 The origin of illustrated books is traced to the 
 pictured Bibles of the cloister. The best known 
 of the early illustrated school books is the Orbis Pic- 
 tus of Comenius, issued in 1657. So great was the 
 influence of this book that Comenius has been called 
 "the father of all picture books for children." The 
 method of Comenius was adopted by the New Eng- 
 land Primer. To what a stage of perfection the illus- 
 tration of primers has now been brought, we all know. 
 
 Reading machines were devices to secure the in- 
 terest and self-activity of children in learning to 
 read. The essential elements of the mechanism are 
 a set of movable blocks or dice on which are stamped 
 the letters of the alphabet. These are fitted into 
 a frame and manipulated so as to spell syllables 
 and words. The reading machines were used by the 
 philanthropinists, and are still manufactured and 
 sold. The nursery alphabet blocks constitute the 
 machine reduced to its simplest form. 
 
 The history of method shows us about every ele- 
 ment of correct teaching as understood and prac- 
 tised to-day by the most enlightened communities, 
 thus confirming the statement of Solomon that 
 there is nothing new under the sun. Most of the 
 conclusions of psychological investigations have 
 
I20 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 been anticipated by empirical discovery. It must 
 be admitted, however, that no one man in previous 
 history advocated or combined all the elements of 
 sound method ; but taking the course of history as a 
 whole, we are able to cull out here and there prin- 
 ciples and devices which, when combined, match the 
 best thought and practice of the present generation. 
 
 2. The Beginnings of Reading. — All reading to-day 
 is taught by various mixtures of the word, sentence, 
 and phonetic methods. Somewhere every system 
 introduces sight words,^ which as soon as known are 
 read in sentences. All authors recommend phonic 
 work, although a few object to diacritical marks. 
 
 (i) Some Definitions. — Before entering upon a 
 fuller discussion of this phase of reading, it may be 
 well to present a few definitions. The words phonic 
 and phonetic are used in teaching parlance rather 
 loosely and interchangeably. Phonic has reference 
 to sound ; when, therefore, we teach children the ele- 
 mentary sounds of the language, we are having a 
 phonic drill. The word, however, covers any kind 
 of sound in nature, no matter how produced. Pho- 
 netic, on the other hand, relates especially to articu- 
 late sounds, or sounds made by the human voice. It 
 
 1 See Principles i8 and 19, p. 75. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 121 
 
 also includes the representation of articulate sounds 
 by characters, which phonics does not. It would 
 seem, therefore, that in all cases phonetic is the better 
 word to use in any discussion of sounds in connection 
 with reading. 
 
 Certain other terms have become familiar in the 
 pedagogy of phonetics, of which the following are 
 examples: — i 
 
 A Phonogram is a written or printed representa- 
 tion of an articulate sound. It may consist of one 
 letter or of more than one ; as, /, s, I, ing, ight, ail. 
 When the phonogram has but one letter, some 
 authors call it simple; when it has more than one 
 letter, they call it compound. 
 
 A Sight Word is a word that has been taught as a 
 whole, and is therefore recognized by sight alone. 
 
 Sight Reading is reading sight words either singly 
 or in sentences. 
 
 A Phonetic Word is a word to be read by means of 
 its phonograms. 
 
 Phonetic Reading is the reading of phonetic words 
 either singly or in sentences. 
 
 A Blend is the combination of sounds, simple or 
 compound, to form words. 
 
 (2) Principles governing the Selection of Sight 
 
122 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Words. — The words to be taught in the beginning 
 of reading must be selected in accordance with some 
 definite aim and not in a haphazard way. I think 
 the following principles should be observed : — 
 
 (a) First, there must be some words needful for 
 sentence building, like a, an, the, is, etc. 
 
 (b) The words should represent ideas that are 
 familiar and interesting to children, and should 
 therefore be taken chiefly from their oral vocabulary. 
 
 (c) The first words should have a concrete basis 
 in the form of things or actions ; that is, the majority 
 should be nouns or verbs. These two parts of speech 
 constitute 80 per cent of a child's speaking vocabu- 
 lary. (See Principle 3.) 
 
 (d) If the method be analytic, the words are neces- 
 sarily chosen from the first sentences of the reading 
 matter of the grade. 
 
 (3) Principles governing the Selection of Sounds 
 to he Taught. — What sounds shall be taught first ? 
 Here again it is better to name the principles of selec- 
 tion and thus allow individual variations. The late 
 Mr. Ward gave three principles which have been 
 incorporated into the New York course of study, as 
 follows : — 
 
 {a) The sounds should be easily made. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 123 
 
 (b) They should be easily prolonged without al- 
 teration in character. 
 
 (c) They should be common to many words in the 
 vocabulary of a child. 
 
 On the basis thus outlined Mr. Ward selects the 
 following, and the New York course of study suggests 
 most of them : /, /, m, n, r, s, a, e, 0, ing, ings, ight, 
 ights. 
 
 In the case of an analytic system, the above prin- 
 ciples will hardly apply, for the teacher will be obliged 
 to select all phonetic elements from the reading text. 
 One very successful primer ^ begins with these 
 phonograms: ake (from make), ill (from will), eat 
 (from eat), all (from tall), because the words in 
 which these elements occur are very prominent and 
 frequently repeated in the first stories read. New 
 words are formed by combining with the above 
 phonograms the initial consonants m, b, c, t, r, I, w, s, 
 etc. 
 
 (4) Teaching Sight Words. — The method to be 
 employed depends somewhat upon the theory of the 
 reading system used by the teacher. With a syn- 
 thetic method words are taught in isolation, in which 
 case they are associated with the object or action for 
 
 ^ The Progressive Road to Reading, SUver, Burdett & Co., N. Y., 19C59. 
 
124 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 which they stand. Many schools are provided with 
 dolls, toy animals, friuts, etc., which form the con- 
 crete basis of reading work. The steps of the process 
 in this case might be as follows : — 
 
 (a) Present the object or picture of the object to 
 the class and ask for the name of the same. Write 
 or print the name upon the blackboard, telling the 
 children what the word is. 
 
 (b) If other words are already known, have a 
 number of such on the board with the new word 
 sandwiched in here and there. Let children find 
 the new wherever it occurs. 
 
 (c) After this, the word taught is printed or 
 written upon a card in letters large enough to be 
 read from the back of the room. All such words are 
 reviewed every day by a rapid manipulation of these 
 "perception cards." 
 
 If the reading method be analytic, the plan might 
 be as follows : — 
 
 (a) The word to be taught is taken from a sen- 
 tence which the children have already memorized 
 and recited. 
 
 {b) This sentence is written on the board, and the 
 children are told what it says, e.g., This is the house 
 that Jack built. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 125 
 
 (c) Some child may find the word Jack; another 
 huilt; another house. Underline these words, and 
 let children point to them repeatedly. Next write 
 the same words under the underlined words, and let 
 children name them. Then write the words on dif- 
 ferent parts of the board, and have them identified. 
 
 id) Finally rub out the original sentence, and 
 write the words on the board for independent 
 recognition. 
 
 {e) After this place them on the perception cards 
 for daily drill. 
 
 (5) Teaching Sounds and Phonograms. — The 
 method may be analytic or synthetic. In the latter 
 case the sounds would be taught in isolation and then 
 combined into significant words. The analytic plan 
 is the better. It may proceed in the following 
 order : — 
 
 {a) The first step is to discover the sound. Sup- 
 pose it is represented by the phonogram .ight. The 
 teacher writes upon the board the word light. She 
 asks children to pronounce it ; then to pronounce it 
 very slowly. 
 
 (6) In this way the two sounds of the word will 
 gradually dawn upon the consciousness of the chil- 
 dren. Then she underlines the part which says ight. 
 
126 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 (c) The phonogram is then placed upon a percep- 
 tion card for daily drill. The sounds of all phono- 
 grams, whether they be single vowels and consonants, 
 or compound elements, are taught in the same way. 
 The three essential steps are : discover, isolate, drill. 
 
 (6) Teaching the Blend. — After the sound and 
 phonogram have been taught in the manner de- 
 tailed above, we may extend the exercise in the fol- 
 lowing manner : — 
 
 {a) Suppose light has just been analyzed into / and 
 ight. We may rub out the word and write the two 
 phonograms with a short space between them. The 
 pupil now slowly gives the sounds of / and ight, thus 
 producing the original word. 
 
 (h) After this we build new words with our phono- 
 gram ight by changing the initial consonant, the 
 children being required in each case to make the 
 sound fusion mentally and then to pronounce the 
 entire word at once. Some experienced teachers 
 have found it expedient never to permit a child to 
 voice the separate phonograms, but in word-building 
 drills, at least, to require a full and perfect blend.^ 
 
 (7) Correcting Errors. — Phonetic work in all grades 
 of an elementary school should include the correction 
 
 ^ See Manual of The Progressive Road to Reading. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 127 
 
 of characteristic errors of pronunciation. Every com- 
 munity has its own pecuhar faults. Each nationahty 
 has its special difficulty. The German has hard 
 work with the soft th as in this and with. The 
 Italian and the Russian find many sounds in Enghsh 
 which are troublesome to the tongue. Each school 
 and class will find out the dominant errors of its 
 pupils and correct these by suitable drills. In ordi- 
 nary cases it may be sufficient for the teacher to give 
 the correct sound and ask the pupil to imitate her 
 pronunciation. But in the case of foreign-born 
 children or children born of foreign parents it is 
 frequently necessary to take these several steps : — 
 
 (a) Analyze the word into its phonetic elements. 
 
 (h) Pronounce these separately for the pupil, and 
 have him do so. 
 
 (c) Blend the elements into the original word. 
 
 {d) Drill on other words containing the difficult 
 sound. 
 
 {e) Show the pupil the position of the organs of 
 speech in pronouncing the word or phonogram. 
 
 (8) A Device for Beginners in Reading. — One of 
 the difficulties in a beginners' reading class is that the 
 little folks lose their places, and an enormous amount 
 of time is wasted by the teacher in showing the pupils 
 
I2S THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 where to read. Ordinarily this loss is at the expense 
 of the children ; but when a supervising official under- 
 takes to test such a class he also shares the loss. I 
 have tested hundreds of classes that required twenty 
 minutes to read around the class, a sentence to a 
 child, when five minutes should have sufficed. Now 
 time consumed in showing children their places is 
 not available for teaching. It is therefore worth 
 while to eliminate this waste. It may be done 
 effectively by the following simple device: — 
 
 The teacher provides each child with an oak-tag 
 strip as long as the width of the page and about an 
 inch and a half wide. The children lay this strip 
 upon the book in such a way that the line to be read 
 is visible above the upper edge of the paper. A child 
 is called upon to read line one. Then the teacher 
 quietly remarks : "Move the paper," and each pupil 
 slips the strip down far enough to expose line two. 
 When that has been read, the operation is repeated. 
 Thus there is not the slightest difficulty in keeping 
 the place, and no time is lost. 
 
 3. Methods of imparting the Content of a Reading 
 Lesson. — Thus far we have been occupied exclu- 
 sively by the mechanical side of reading, the mere 
 conquest of symbols. This is of course the indis- 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 129 
 
 pensable prerequisite to the next and more impor- 
 tant step of mastering the thought and emotional 
 content of what is read. 
 
 (i) Impression and Expression. — All successful 
 teachers of reading in the early primary grades divide 
 the process, by one means or another, into two parts, 
 impression and expression, getting the thought and 
 giving the thought. It is the recognition of the 
 principle that the child can do well only one thing at 
 a time. Sometimes the teacher calls the impression 
 "reading" and the expression "telling." She directs 
 all the children to read the "story" (sentence or 
 paragraph) and gives Mary permission to tell what 
 she has read. In this way she employs social co- 
 operation to maintain interest and at the same time 
 secures the individual effort of every pupil. The 
 neglect of the above device, the calling upon pupils 
 in regular order to stumble over the page as best 
 they may, while the rest of the class go wool- 
 gathering or fall into disorder, is one of the common- 
 est faults of poor teachers and one of the most pro- 
 Hfic sources of waste in school. A cardinal principle, 
 then, of primary reading, at least in the first year, is 
 that a pupil must never be permitted to attempt oral 
 reading until he has secured the thought by silent 
 
I30 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 preparation. In the lowest grades it is well to re- 
 quire children to avert their eyes from the page while 
 they tell what they have read, in order to induce the 
 habit of reading thoughts rather than words. (See 
 Principle 20,) 
 
 In the higher grades the preparation of the lesson 
 is in effect the impressive side of reading. It is the 
 mastery of the content. This must be done before 
 the class undertakes oral reading at all. It is very 
 foolish to try to do both of these things at once ; for 
 if the pupil is allowed to make an attempt at oral 
 reading before he is properly prepared to do so, the 
 result will be unsatisfactory in every respect. A 
 child cannot express what he does not feel or under- 
 stand ; and the hesitating, stumbling efforts at rea,d- 
 ing which one often hears in class rooms are due 
 entirely to insufficient preparation. 
 
 (2) Lyrics (Primary). — The first principle we 
 shall appeal to in presenting a literary masterpiece 
 is that of congruity (Principle 8), which admonishes 
 us that our mood must harmonize with the general 
 spirit of the piece. In other words, the first step is 
 to create a suitable atmosphere. Many of the great 
 classics appeal primarily to the emotions; and Dr. 
 Hall has well said that the "emotions are far more 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 
 
 131 
 
 independent of age than the intelligence." For this 
 reason certain brief strains of l3n:ic poetry like 
 Wordsworth's "We are Seven" and Emerson's "The 
 Mountain and the Squirrel" exercise their spell upon 
 a child of seven as effectually as on a man of seventy. 
 The secret of successful treatment of any such work 
 of art is to present it so that it will make the right 
 kind of emotional appeal. We may illustrate the 
 presentation of a lyric in the second year of school 
 by reference to Shakespeare's Where the Bee Sucks : — 
 
 " Where the bee sucks, there suck I; 
 
 In a cowslip's bell I lie; 
 
 There I couch when owls do cry. 
 
 On the bat's back I do fly 
 
 After summer, merrily. 
 
 Merrily, merrily, shall I live now 
 
 Under the blossom that hangs on the bough." 
 
 A preliminary explanation of the teacher brings 
 home to the class the fact that this is the song of a 
 fairy who inhabits with Oberon and Titania the 
 world of grass and flowers. The atmosphere is 
 created by the teacher's reading of the poem, in con- 
 nection with her explanation. Possibly one or two 
 words like couch and bough need clearing up, and this 
 is all the preparation required. 
 
 (3) Narrative Poem (Fourth Year). — A little more 
 
132 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 elaborate is the treatment required of a narra- 
 tive poem like Wordsworth's Lucy Gray: — 
 
 1. Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray ; 
 
 And, when I crossed the wild, 
 I chanced to see at break of day 
 The solitary child. 
 
 2. No mate, no comrade Lucy knew ; 
 
 She dwelt on a wide moor, 
 — The sweetest thing that ever grew 
 Beside a human door ! 
 
 3. You yet may spy the fawn at play, 
 
 The hare upon the green ; 
 But the sweet face of Lucy Gray 
 Will never more be seen. 
 
 4. "To-night wUl be a stormy night — 
 
 You to the town must go ; 
 And take a lantern, child, to light 
 Your mother through the snow." 
 
 5. "That, father ! will I gladly do : 
 
 'Tis scarcely afternoon — 
 The minster clock has just struck two, 
 And yonder is the moon ! " 
 
 6. At this the father raised his hook, 
 
 And snapped a faggot band ; 
 He plied his work ; — and Lucy took 
 The lantern in her hand. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 133 
 
 7. No blither is the mountain roe : 
 
 With many a wanton stroke 
 Her feet dispersed the powdery snow, 
 That rises up like smoke. 
 
 8. The storm came on before its time : 
 
 She wandered up and down ; 
 
 And many a hill did Lucy climb : 
 
 But never reached the town. 
 
 9. The wretched parents all that night 
 
 Went shouting far and wide ; 
 But there was neither soimd nor sight 
 To serve them for a guide. 
 
 10. At daybreak on a hill they stood 
 
 That overlooked the moor ; 
 And thence they saw the bridge of wood, 
 A furlong from their door. 
 
 11. They wept — and turning homeward, cried, 
 
 "In heaven we aU shall meet;" 
 — When in the snow the mother spied 
 The print of Lucy's feet. 
 
 12. Then downwards from the steep hill's edge 
 
 They tracked the footmarks small ; 
 And through the broken hawthorn hedge, 
 And by the long stone wall. 
 
 13. And then an open field they crossed : 
 
 The marks were still the same ; 
 They tracked them on, nor ever lost ; 
 And to the bridge they came. 
 
134 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 14. They followed from the snowy bank 
 
 These footmarks, one by one, 
 Into the middle of the plank : 
 And further there were none ! 
 
 15. Yet some maintain that to this day 
 
 She is a living child ; 
 That you may see sweet Lucy Gray 
 Upon the lonesome wild. 
 
 16. O'er rough and smooth she trips along, 
 
 And never looks behind ; 
 And sings a solitary song 
 That whistles in the wind. 
 
 I venture to present an abstract of the treatment 
 of this poem suggested by Mr. Percival Chubb, one 
 of the best authorities on the teaching of literature :^ — 
 
 (a) The teacher reads the poem to secure total 
 dramatic impression, making plain by her rendition 
 that the little drama has three acts, a prologue, and 
 an epilogue.^ 
 
 (b) She explains just enough to remove difficul- 
 ties and to create the right mood or atmosphere. 
 
 (c) Then the children read stanzas in their natural 
 grouping, beginning with the prologue as the first 
 portion. 
 
 ^ The Teaching of English, p. 9,7. 
 
 ^Prologue, stanzas 1-3; Act I, stanzas 4-7; Act II, stanza ?>; Act 
 III, stanzas 9-14; Epilogue, stanzas 15-16. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 135 
 
 (d) The reading of each group is followed by ques- 
 tions which may be necessary to clear up words and 
 constructions that cause difficulty — no others. 
 
 (e) Lucy's character is talked about. What kind 
 of girl was she ? The answer is gathered from the 
 verses. 
 
 (/) Lastly, the poem is memorized, and thus a 
 good, emotional, yet simple interpretation is se- 
 cured. 
 
 (4) The Total Impression. — With respect to a 
 literary work, the essential thing is to grasp the whole 
 with its interrelated parts. The httle drama of 
 Lucy Gray illustrates in a nutshell what is meant by 
 this statement. The same treatment is to be applied 
 to any work whatsoever, whether it be "Julius 
 Cffisar," "Robinson Crusoe," "The Wreck of the 
 Hesperus," or Burke's "Speech on Conciliation." 
 In the case of lyrics, which are often very brief, the 
 unity may be so obvious that no time need be spent 
 on it ; but in the case of ballads, or narrative poems, 
 and prose works the careful study of the parts and 
 their relation to the whole is highly important ; for 
 only by such study may the pupil gain a comprehen- 
 sion of the whole. In the upper elementary and high 
 school grades, the first reading for total impression 
 
136 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 is usually done by the pupils themselves, either in 
 class or at home ; but even here there may be oppor- 
 tunities for the teacher to clear up difficulties, to 
 create an atmosphere, and to deepen the impression 
 by adequate vocal interpretation. The first reading, 
 then, is always somewhat superficial, inasmuch as 
 the object is a large view, a general effect, a com- 
 prehensive glance. 
 
 (5) Word Study. — An important step in the mas- 
 tering of the content of the printed page is the study 
 of words. Poetry especially is prolific of unfamiliar 
 terms. The second reading will be concerned in 
 unlocking these secret meanings. In the primary 
 grades the teacher will develop the idea by means 
 of context, by comparison with known things, by 
 story, and by picture. In the higher grades the 
 pupil will use the dictionary; but even here the 
 teacher's assistance is frequently required, as defini- 
 tions seldom give any new knowledge. The high 
 school and college classics are usually provided with 
 footnotes which remove difi&culties. Children should 
 be carefully drilled in the use of diacritical marks, 
 for without this knowledge the dictionary is of little 
 or no use as a standard of pronunciation. They 
 should have their attention called to the fact that 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 137 
 
 the same word may be used in several senses ; and 
 when they are looking up the meaning of a strange 
 word, they should read all the definitions given, and 
 then use their judgment as to which meaning applies 
 to the word in the given passage. Pupils must also 
 be cautioned against misreading definitions. I re- 
 call a girl of foreign birth who looked up the word 
 educated, and found that it meant "to bring up." 
 Then she constructed this sentence to illustrate the 
 use of the word : "The boy educated the chairs up- 
 stairs." In the smaller dictionaries the definitions 
 are necessarily much abbreviated, and consequently 
 often as obscure as the word itself. This is the case 
 when the word is defined by a synonym. True 
 logical definition consists in naming the "genus" and 
 "difference"; as, "A quadruped is an animal that 
 walks on four feet." This definition affirms that 
 quadruped is a member of a class called animals; 
 "that walks on four feet" is the difference between 
 quadrupeds and other members of the animal class. 
 The dictionary defines many words by giving another 
 word having about the same meaning. Derivatives 
 are defined usually by giving the meaning of the 
 affixes; as, "misdirection, the act of directing 
 wrongly." In such cases the pupil obtains no real 
 
138 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 information unless he refers to the definition of the 
 primitive word. All these points must be impressed 
 upon children before one can expect them to make 
 an intelligent use of the dictionary. We must, how- 
 ever, not overwork the dictionary. It is not neces- 
 sary for a child to know every word in order to appre- 
 ciate a literary work ; and appreciation is our goal. 
 
 (6) Grammar, Figures, Allusions. — In the upper 
 grades, where the more difficult forms of literature 
 are read, an important part of the interpretive pro- 
 cess consists of a study of allusions, figures of speech, 
 and grammatical forms. 
 
 The following stanza may serve to illustrate the 
 force of this statement : — 
 
 " This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, 
 
 Sails the unshadowed main, — _ 
 
 The venturous bark that flings 
 On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings 
 In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings. 
 
 And coral reefs lie bare, 
 Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair." 
 
 Some account of the chambered nautilus and also 
 of the "paper-nautilus" is necessary to under- 
 stand such expressions as "ship of pearl" and 
 the ethical and poetical force of the last stanza of 
 the poem. Something, also, must be known about 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 139 
 
 the mythical sirens of the Greeks and the mermaids 
 of Northern lands. Without such knowledge the 
 words of the poem fail to call up successively the 
 pictures which are the very substance and life of the 
 poem. But an explanation of these obscure allu- 
 sions must not transform the reading lesson into a 
 lecture on biology and mythology. Just enough of 
 time and attention must be devoted to such details 
 to render the meaning clear and to make the words 
 adequate media for the revelation of the poet's vision. 
 In other words, the full, free current of the thought 
 and feeling must not be interfered with by excessive 
 attention to details. The appreciation of the poem 
 is the only object of the lesson, and all information 
 that does not contribute directly and indispensably 
 to this result is an impertinence. 
 
 In teaching figures of speech, care should be taken 
 not to make the subject a matter of formal defini- 
 tion, but of poetic appreciation. The names of fig- 
 ures are not so important as a lively sense of their 
 peculiar appropriateness and beauty. To illustrate, 
 let us take the following : — 
 
 " To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
 Creeps in this petty pace from day to day 
 To the last syllable of recorded time, 
 And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
 
I40 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! 
 Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player 
 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 
 And then is heard no more ; it is a tale 
 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
 Signifying nothing." 
 
 A pupil may be able to define every figure treated 
 by the rhetoricians, and still be unable to use or 
 appreciate figurative language. A study of the above 
 passage should give the child a lively sense of the 
 beauty and appropriateness of the images conjured 
 up by the poet's imagination. Life is a candle, a 
 walking shadow, a poor player, an idiot's tale. All 
 these comparisons are packed with consummate 
 skill into a few short lines. That the reader should 
 feel the beauty and power of this imagery is far more 
 important than his ability merely -to name and 
 classify the figures. 
 
 (7) A Definite Aim. — " Indefiniteness of aim," 
 says Mr. Chubb, "is one of the worst pitfalls in Eng- 
 lish work, the parent of confusion and superficiality." ^ 
 It is to be assumed that an author capable of writing 
 a great literary work must have had a definite pur- 
 pose in view. The teacher, therefore, in presenting 
 a masterpiece to a class, must first ask herself, 
 
 ^ The Teaching of English, p. 154. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 141 
 
 "What sort of impression did the author evidently 
 mean to make?" Having ascertained that, the 
 appropriate handling will follow. In the case of 
 Milton's Paradise Lost, "the teacher's business is 
 to treat the work so as to enable the student to 
 feel and appreciate the elevation, the subhmity, the 
 high seriousness of the poem, the magnificent pomp, 
 the classic, 'grand style' of verse." ^ A poem like 
 Browning's Incident of the French Camp may be 
 useful chiefly for dramatic imagination and pre- 
 sentation, and a good oral rendering by the teacher 
 will remove all difficulties. To sum up: "We must be 
 careful . . . not to do violence to a work by asking 
 it to )deld a different sort of pleasure, or illustrate a 
 different kind of excellence from that dominant one 
 which it was designed by its author to yield." ^ 
 Uniform treatment is therefore out of the question. 
 Appropriate emphasis is the thing we want. To 
 get this, the teacher must know what she wants to 
 accompKsh before she meets the class. 
 
 4. Reading as Expression. — We may recall undelr 
 this head how important a part of language in the 
 "chattering stage" are gesture, tone, inflection. A 
 child by a single word accompanied by the auxiliaries 
 
 ^ Chubb, op. ciL, p. 153. 2 Chubb, op. cit., p. 157. 
 
142 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 mentioned manages to express himself with satis- 
 factory completeness (Principle 2). Likewise let us 
 revert to Principle 11, which asserts that silent read- 
 ing alone is not sufficient. The muscular image of 
 expression is an important part of meaning, and is 
 an essential element of learning. Principle 12 ex- 
 horts us to employ the motor activities of children, 
 since the development of brain fibres for motor, sight, 
 and hearing areas reaches the maximum by the end 
 of the second year. We learn further (Principle 13) 
 that a word is the result of a voluntary activity of 
 the mind, and that nature has provided a special 
 area (Broca's Convolution) for the expression of 
 words. In short, words are essentially motor, both 
 as to meaning and as to memory. In all our thinking 
 the motor image is present. Getting the thought is 
 an important part of reading, but it is by no means 
 the whole of reading ; it is only the analytic half of 
 it. Phonetic drills, careful training in enunciation, 
 pronunciation, pitch, rate, quality, and those other 
 details which constitute the mechanics of reading, 
 are little less important than the mental process of 
 thought-getting itself. In fact, the images of muscu- 
 lar movement involved in oral expression are indis- 
 pensable to the real appreciation of dramatic passages 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 143 
 
 and other literature that makes strong appeal to the 
 emotions. Take the following stanza : — „ 
 
 "Oh, better that her shatter'd hulk 
 
 Should sink beneath the wave ! 
 Her thunders shook the mighty deep, 
 
 And there should be her grave! 
 NaU to the mast her holy flag. 
 
 Set every threadbare sail, 
 And give her to the god of storms. 
 
 The lightning and the gale!" 
 
 Can any pupil feel the intensity of the poet's in- 
 dignation and outraged patriotism who has not 
 heard this declaimed and who does not accompany 
 the words, even in silent reading, with images of the 
 effort he would make in oral declamation? Many 
 of the best selections in all our books are of this 
 nature, and, therefore, systematic drill in the mechan- 
 ics of reading is indispensable if reading is to yield 
 its richest content as a school study. 
 
 (i) Literature for the Ear. — "Literature is a thing 
 for the ear as well as for the eye; indeed, it was 
 originally a thing only for the ear." ^ Only within 
 the modern era of printing has the eye enjoyed a 
 monopoly of literary entertainment. "The pleas- 
 ures of literature are enhanced by the cultivation 
 
 ^ The Teaching of English, Carpenter, Baker and Scott, Longmans, 1903. 
 
144 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 of the ear. The rhythms of verse and prose, the fit- 
 ness between the sound and the idea, often escape 
 the child unless he hears them. He has not learned to 
 read literature until he has come to hear the sound while 
 he reads silently, and the necessary equipment for this 
 feat is a full memory of the sounds of literary pieces." ^ 
 "The Greeks . . . regarded writing simply as a 
 method of chronicling. Their test was always the 
 spoken word in its musical and metrical relations. 
 The voice was the medium, and the ear the critic. 
 I have sometimes thought that the story of Homer's 
 blindness might be really an artistic myth, created 
 in critical days, and serving to remind us, not merely 
 that the great poet is always a seer, seeing less with 
 the eyes of the body than he does with the eyes of 
 the soul, but that he is a true singer also, building 
 his song out of music, repeating each line over and 
 over again to himself till he has caught the secret of 
 its melody, chaunting in darkness the words that are 
 winged with light. Certainly, whether this be so or 
 not, it was to his blindness, as an occasion if not as a 
 cause, that England's great poet owed much of the 
 majestic movement and sonorous splendor of his 
 later verse. . . . When Milton became blind he 
 
 ^ Carpenter, Baker and Scott, op. cit. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 145 
 
 composed, as every one should compose, with the 
 voice purely, and so the pipe or reed of earlier 
 days became the mighty many-stopped organ whose 
 rich reverberant music has all the stateliness of 
 Homeric verse, . . . and is the one imperishable in- 
 heritance of English literature." ^ 
 
 Speaking on the necessity of systematic education 
 in the elements of vocal expression, Corson says: 
 "How is this essential life of a poem to be imparted ? 
 By the fullest interpreting vocal rendering. That 
 is, you must know how to read it — to exhibit the 
 indefinable, spiritual atmosphere of the work by 
 intonation, quality of voice, etc., as an accomplished 
 elocutionist reads a favorite poem of Riley's. You 
 can't do it by lecturing. A lecture about music is 
 no substitute for a rendering of it. Verse, especially, 
 must first be appreciated as an inseparable part of the 
 expression; that is, felt in its organic character, be- 
 fore it is analyzed, and it therefore needs more than 
 prose, to be vocally interpreted." ^ 
 
 In the play of Hamlet one of the most thrilling 
 episodes is what is called the "Closet Scene" (Act 
 HI, Scene IV): — 
 
 ^Intentions, by Oscar Wilde, Thomas B. Mosher, 1904, p. 103. 
 2 The Aims of Literary Study, Hiram Corson, The Macmillan Co., 
 1895, p. 106. 
 
146 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 ^^ Hamlet. Look here, upon this picture, and on this, 
 The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. 
 See, what a grace was seated on this brow : 
 Hyperion's curls ; the front of Jove himself ; 
 An eye like Mars', to threaten and command ; 
 A station like the herald Mercury 
 New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill. 
 This was your husband. Look you now what follows : 
 Here is your husband ; like a mildew'd ear, 
 Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? " etc. 
 
 The Queen, overcome by this terrible denuncia- 
 tion, exclaims : — 
 
 "No more!" 
 
 But Hamlet proceeds : — 
 
 "A murtherer and a villain ; 
 A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe 
 Of your precedent lord ; a vice of kings ; 
 A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, 
 That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, 
 And put it in his pocket! . . . 
 A king of shreds and patches, — " 
 
 It is here that the power of a great actor like Edwin 
 Booth, whom the writer remembers in this connec- 
 tion, displays itself. The sudden transition from 
 the stern and pathetic, the angry and impassioned, 
 to the horror at the appearance of the Ghost, can 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 147 
 
 only be realized when the voice and action of the 
 actor-artist accompany the lines of Shakespeare. 
 
 The Queen does not see the Ghost; Hamlet does; 
 and she exclaims : — 
 
 "Alas! he's mad!" 
 
 Then when she says, 
 "Whereon do you look?" 
 
 And he answers, 
 
 "On him! on him! — Look you how pale he glares!" 
 
 The Queen asks: — 
 
 "To whom do you speak this ? 
 Hamlet. Do you see nothing there ? 
 Queen. Nothing at all ; yet all that is I see. 
 Hamlet. Nor did you nothing hear ? 
 Queen. No, nothing but ourselves. 
 Hamlet. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away. 
 My father, in his habit as he lived." 
 
 All this time Hamlet, with his eyes fixed and finger 
 pointed, follows the movement of the Ghost, and when 
 he pronounces the words, "My father," the Queen 
 shrieks, and the audience is ready to scream also 
 with mingled amazement, horror, and admiration. 
 
 I have heard it said that thought-getting is the 
 only object of reading; and therefore silent reading 
 should occupy most of the reading period. 
 
148 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 I reply that thought is only a part of the content 
 of reading; the emotional element is frequently of 
 far greater consequence than the intellectual. Will 
 any one say that a pupil could get, from such a passage 
 as I have quoted, any adequate realization of its 
 soul-stirring passion by sUently reading it? It is 
 impossible. In order to feel what is in the poet's 
 lines, you must either express them orally, or hear 
 some one else express them, or think them in the 
 form of muscular images. The way you say a thing 
 determines the way it impresses you ; and if you do 
 not actually say it, the way you conceive the ex- 
 pression, — the imaged emphasis, sHdes, pauseSj etc., 
 — reacts upon the idea and helps to determine its 
 power over your soul. 
 
 For a detailed discussion of the elements of vocal 
 expression, the reader is referred to manuals on elocu- 
 tion.^ What is desired here is such emphasis of the 
 importance of the subject that the teacher may feel 
 the need of special preparation. In so-called art 
 education there is now going on a slow revolution. 
 Thousands of teachers are stud)dng the principles 
 and receiving drill in the practice of drawing, design, 
 
 1 Especially such works as Clark's How to Teach Reading in the Public 
 Schools, Scott, Foresman & Co., Chicago, and Fulton and Trueblood's 
 Practical Elements of Elocution, Ginn & Co., Boston. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 149 
 
 picture study, etc., who a dozen years ago were con- 
 sidered good teachers of drawing. Much the same 
 thing is happening in music. Reading alone re- 
 mains as it was twenty years ago, if, indeed, it has 
 not deteriorated. The subject-matter of reading has 
 vastly improved; but in the art of oral expression, 
 no revival has come. We want to preach a new 
 crusade. We want teachers to realize that reading 
 is an art that requires special preparation just as 
 much as music and drawing. We would not under- 
 value subject-matter, nor the ability to abstract 
 rapidly for one's own use the thought-content of a 
 book. But we want in addition to these excellen- 
 cies such a culture in the art of expression that the 
 reader's own feelings may be aroused and his imagi- 
 nation kindled. Thus will be increased mightily the 
 power of literature upon reader and hearer. 
 
 (2) High School Reading. — The best authorities 
 insist that as the pupil ascends in the grades he shall 
 hear not less, but more expressive, reading by the 
 teacher. The emotional appeal has been empha- 
 sized in the primary and grammar grades, and this 
 is done chiefly by adequate oral rendering. But 
 now we are to enable the student to appreciate 
 subtler beauties, as revealed by the varieties and 
 
I50 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 intricacies of verse. This again is best accomplished 
 by oral interpretation. Shakespeare especially needs 
 the oral rendition. His lines were written chiefly to 
 be heard, not read. Sir Henry Taylor says that he 
 regards the reading of Shakespeare to boys and girls, 
 if he be well read and they are apt, as carrying with 
 it a deeper cultivation than anything else which can 
 be done to cultivate them. "There are few gifts," 
 says Mr. Chubb, "if any, that will atone for the 
 absence in an Enghsh teacher of the powers to read 
 Shakespeare well." Accordingly this author rec- 
 ommends that the first reading of a Shakespearean 
 play be entirely by the teacher, with a minimum of 
 comment. Such a reading will leave upon the pupil 
 a deep and lasting impression of the play as a whole, 
 of the "rise and fall of emotional emphasis, and of 
 its poetic power." . 
 
 (3) S. E. Clark on Oral Reading. — Mr. S. H. 
 Clark ^ has compressed ten valuable ideas on reading 
 into a little booklet of 59 pages. According to this 
 treatment the essentials of oral reading may be 
 taught under the following heads : — 
 
 (a) Words. 
 
 "We must get the thought; we must hold the 
 
 ^ How to Read Aloud, published bj' the author, at Chicago University. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 151 
 
 thought; and we must give the thought. This is 
 
 reading aloud." To do this we must attend closely 
 
 to individual words, so that we may have in mind 
 
 clearly the ideas for which they stand. 
 
 (6) Grouping. 
 
 "I saw a man in a steam car." (Two groups.) 
 *T went to King Street with my sister to buy a new hat." 
 (Three groups.) 
 
 Intelligence is shown and effectiveness produced 
 by the correct grouping of the words to express 
 succession of ideas. 
 
 (c) Sentences. 
 
 "I saw a cat, and a mouse, and a rat." 
 "But when the gray dawn stole into his tent, 
 He rose, and clad himself, and girt his sword, 
 And took his horseman's cloak, and left his tent." 
 
 The sentence is the unit of a complete thought, 
 and the individual words and groups must be so 
 pronounced as to convey clearly to the hearer the 
 difference between the incomplete (word or group) 
 and the complete (sentence) thought. This requires 
 looking ahead, which for the beginner is a difficult 
 feat. 
 
 (d) Subordination. 
 
 "The King of England, who was a very brave man, won 
 several victories over the French." 
 
152 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 "During the Christmas vacation, which lasts ten days, I 
 went to see my grandmother." 
 
 Subordination is an important principle of all art. 
 There is one dominant feature (sometimes more than 
 one) and one or more subordinate elements. In oral 
 reading, the voice must show the relative impor- 
 tance of different parts of the sentence. 
 
 (e) Transition. 
 
 "There's a good time coming, boys, 
 A good — Come in! " 
 
 "'Halt !' The dust-brown ranks stood fast. 
 ' Fire ! ' Out blazed the rifle-blast." 
 
 Here is a phase of reading not previously consid- 
 ered — the sudden interruption of the train of 
 thought by ideas that are foreign to it. In the last 
 exercise a group was thrown in that seemed to ex- 
 plain or supplement the principal thought. In the 
 present case the first thought is driven entirely out 
 of the mind by the second. 
 
 (/) Emphasis. 
 
 "IheardWilHamsayit." 
 
 "I should rather be a lawyer than a doctor." 
 
 The exact meaning of a sentence cannot be 
 expressed without laying the emphasis on the 
 proper words. Various meanings may be read 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 153 
 
 into the above examples by a mere change of 
 emphasis. 
 
 (g) Emotion. (Sympathetic.) 
 
 "Three cheers for our class !" 
 
 "Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness !" 
 
 Ideas and thoughts are not the only content of 
 reading. Many passages appeal to the feelings. In 
 the above instances the reader must imagine him- 
 self in the situation of the one who utters the words, 
 and then try to express the passage as the person 
 so situated would do it. 
 
 Qi) Emotion. (Personal.) 
 
 "The other day a little child came to its mother, saying, 
 'Oh, mother! I just saw a beautiful toy in the window; I 
 wish you would buy it for me.' The sweet voice was full of 
 pleading. The mother was very poor, and had hardly earned 
 enough to pay for fuel. How could she spare even the few 
 pennies for the toy? But she said to herself, 'This is Christ- 
 mas time ' ; and the tears came into her eyes. The little one 
 saw the tears, and said, ' What are you crying for, mother ? ' 
 And then the mother hugged her child to her breast and kissed 
 her again and again, saying over and over : ' Because I love you ! 
 Because I love you!' 
 
 "When Christmas morning dawned, the little toy was on 
 the mantel, and the child was happy. But when the time 
 for breakfast came, the child asked her mother why she did 
 not eat; and the mother answered, 'I am not hungry, 
 
154 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 darling; don't mind me/ and she smiled tenderly upon the 
 sweet face upturned to Idss her." 
 
 Here, if one reads attentively and sympathetically, 
 he is touched with real emotion, which will give his 
 reading a tender and pathetic effectiveness. 
 
 (i) Contrast. 
 
 "Last week I was sleighing and skating in Minneapolis; 
 but to-day I am plucking violets and japonicas in the gardens 
 of Savannah." 
 
 All art requires contrast. To heighten the effect 
 of the lights in a picture the darks are introduced. 
 So ideas are made more emphatic in reading by being 
 contrasted with other ideas. 
 
 (j) Climax. 
 
 "I know it, I concede it, I confess it, I proclaim it." 
 
 5. Class Criticism of Oral Reading. — Children 
 inevitably make mistakes in reading as they do in 
 other recitations. How shall these errors be cor- 
 rected ? And what shall be the standard of accuracy 
 to be insisted upon? Perfection we shall never 
 attain because neither we nor the children are per- 
 fect in anything. Our own standard may be im- 
 perfect; and though the children succeed in satis- 
 fying us, their performances may still be defective. 
 If they do not reach our ideal, they may be nearer 
 right than we are. In matters of fact, as in science 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 155 
 
 and mathematics, it is possible to measure the degree 
 of accuracy in the result, and to declare positively 
 this is right and this is wrong. But in all forms of 
 art, where perfection is a variable term depending 
 on individual tastes, the measure of success is far 
 more difficult than in the case of exact science. In 
 drawing, for instance, what may we expect of the 
 child? How accurate must he be in order to be 
 credited with a satisfactory recitation? If our 
 standard is too high, the pupil becomes discouraged, 
 his spontaneity is crushed out of him, and he learns 
 to measure his success by the nearness of his ap- 
 proach to our arbitrary standard, thus becoming a 
 mechanical imitator. If our standard is too low, 
 if we accept any product he chooses to give us, how- 
 ever slovenly and faulty, we can have no assurance 
 that he will make any progress. 
 
 (i) The Standard of a Good Recitation. — Some 
 standard there must be, and a reasonable one is that 
 the pupil shall have done his best. Imperfections 
 which are clearly the result of inattention, indiffer- 
 ence, and carelessness must be positively rejected 
 and treated, by an earnest and conscientious teacher, 
 as an affront. Careful discrimination on the part 
 of the teacher is absolutely essential. Of two pupils 
 
156 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 equally successful when judged by an absolute 
 standard, one may deserve praise and the other cen- 
 sure when judged in the light of their relative abili- 
 ties. Progress and fidelity deserve consideration 
 quite as much as successful achievement. 
 
 In reading, some elements, like the meaning, pro- 
 nunciation, and spelling of words, are measured by 
 the dictionary, which is a relatively constant and 
 uniform standard. In spelling there can be no com- 
 promise. Absolute accuracy is the only result that 
 can be accepted. One might as well make truce 
 with a false multiplication table as to praise a pupil 
 for misspelling a word. The standard of pronuncia- 
 tion is only a trifle less rigorous than that of spelling. 
 Accuracy is the watchword. But when we come 
 to such matters as the modulation of the voice, the 
 grouping of phrases, the management of pauses, 
 slides, gestures, facial expressions, etc., we are in 
 the domain of art, where mechanical rules count for 
 so little, and artistic temperament and method for 
 so much. It would be quite impossible to account 
 by rules for the success of Edwin Booth or Joseph 
 Jefferson. There may be a dozen ways of reading 
 a given passage, all effective, and yet so complex and 
 subtle as to defy complete analysis and description. 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 157 
 
 (2) Who is to criticise, and How ? — With the 
 question of standard disposed of, we pass next to 
 the consideration of the methods of criticism. And, 
 first, who is to criticise? Shall the teacher assist 
 every time the pupU hesitates? When an error 
 occurs, shall the teacher or the class break in and 
 make the correction, thus interrupting the current 
 of thought in the reading ? 
 
 We have two kinds of reading; namely, regular 
 and supplementary. The regular lesson is usually 
 prepared either in the class room or at home. Supple- 
 mentary reading is frequently not prepared in the 
 class and is never prepared at home. In the case 
 of a prepared lesson, the average pupil under normal 
 circumstances should make few mistakes in pronun- 
 ciation. Expression, being an artistic process, may 
 result in a greater number of errors ; but, the stand- 
 ard being flexible, the mode of criticism must be 
 different from that employed in the case of pronuncia- 
 tion. Even in supplementary reading the lesson 
 should be prepared if possible. But, the object of 
 this form of reading being to supply information, the 
 ground to be covered sometimes makes it impossible 
 to spend much time on preparatory work. 
 
 I believe a pupil should never be interrupted by 
 
158 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 teacher or pupil until he has reached the end of a 
 paragraph. If he comes to a word which he cannot 
 pronounce, instead of hesitating, he ought to be 
 taught to pass on without trying to pronounce it, 
 or to call it "blank." When he sits down, the pupils 
 who have noticed the errors may raise hands; but 
 in order to insure careful attention, the teacher 
 should frequently call for criticisms from those who 
 do not volunteer. These criticisms should be as 
 simple and direct as possible and should never be 
 unkind. If the error is in pronunciation, the pupil 
 may say, "Blank was mispronounced," or he may 
 simply give the correct pronunciation, without any 
 explanation. If the mistake is in expression or inter- 
 pretation, the pupil may state the error, give the 
 correct form, and state his reason. The teacher 
 should keep in the background and offer suggestions 
 only to supplement or correct the class. In persist- 
 ent or peculiar cases of mispronunciation the words 
 should be written on the board and the entire class 
 should be carefully drilled until the difficulty is over- 
 come. 
 
 6. Reading to Pupils. — We have already consid- 
 ered the need and value of reading to pupils in the 
 study of literature for the purpose of setting stand- 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 159 
 
 ards of expression and securing adequate apprecia- 
 tion through the ear. In the lower grades, also, 
 such reading has its uses. The first reading of poetry 
 especially should be done by the teacher. Before 
 the pupil has acquired facility in the mechanics of 
 reading the teacher reads much to supplement the 
 meagre amounts read by the class itself. In another 
 part of this book we have indicated the chief ob- 
 jects of this reading and the books used in the several 
 grades by the schools of New York.^ In the first and 
 second years the amount read to children exceeds 
 that read by themselves. From the third year up- 
 wards the children read more than the teacher. 
 
 7. Memorizing. — In all good schools the memoriz- 
 ing of standard prose and verse is to-day a part of 
 the prescribed work in EngHsh. In the syllabus of 
 the New York schools the material to be memorized 
 is suggested for each of the sixteen grades. What 
 this means to the army of seven hundred thousand 
 children who are thus absorbing culture it is difi&cult 
 to exaggerate. What we learn in childhood we 
 remember throughout life. The stores of lofty senti- 
 ment, of happy diction, of poetic rapture thus laid 
 by win serve in all the future as a source of supply 
 
 1 Chap. VI. 
 
i6o THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 for oral and written speech. The ethical influence 
 is no less important than the aesthetic. 
 
 "Whene'er a noble deed is wrought, 
 Whene'er is spoken a noble thought, 
 Our hearts in glad surprise 
 To higher levels rise." 
 
 The emotional stirrings which accompany the mem- 
 orizing and proper recitation of masterful literature 
 leave the pupil forever richer in the furnishings of 
 the soul. 
 
 I regret to say that, according to my experience 
 as a supervisor of teachers, the memorizing of poetry 
 is badly done. I have seen beautiful literature 
 murdered in hundreds of classes; and I have also 
 heard poems recited in a manner so vivid and con- 
 vincing that the effect was simply thrilling. I fear 
 that in the majority of class rooms the poems are 
 merely given to the children to memorize without 
 being explained, interpreted, or read aloud. The 
 result is deplorable. It is even exceptional to find 
 a class in which the children give evidence of ade- 
 quate comprehension by proper expression. This 
 very day I examined a fifth-year class on memory 
 work. A girl was called upon to recite Longfellow's 
 The Arrow and the Song. She went through the 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING i6i 
 
 piece in a monotonous and mechanical sort of way, 
 indicating clearly enough that she was merely re- 
 calling words in a given sequence rather than de- 
 livering a worthy message for the uplift of the class. 
 Here is the poem : — 
 
 " I shot an arrow into the air, 
 It fell to earth I knew not where ; 
 For, so swiftly it flew, the sight 
 Could not follow it in its flight. 
 
 " I breathed a song into the air. 
 It fell to earth I knew not where ; 
 For who has sight so keen and strong 
 That it can follow the flight of song ? 
 
 " Long, long afterward, in an oak 
 I found the arrow still unbroke ; 
 And the song, from beginning to end, 
 I found again in the heart of a friend." 
 
 I asked the little girl what is meant by the last 
 two lines. Apparently it had never occurred to her 
 that the words meant anything. The class had not 
 been trained to look for meaning. They recited the 
 words as if words, as such, satisfied the requirements 
 of the situation. There was not a single pupil in 
 this class who could give an intelligent answer to my 
 question. When I suggested to the girl who had 
 
i62 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 recited that she was the "friend" in whose heart this 
 particular song might be found, the whole class 
 awoke with a new interest. 
 
 The moral of this experience is that to cast these 
 precious gems of literature at the feet of children 
 without telling them what to do with them or how 
 to appreciate them is almost a capital crime. In 
 every instance these pieces should be given to the 
 children, if possible, in printed or typewritten form. 
 And this is possible, for a well-known house pub- 
 lishes a series of books containing all the poetry for 
 memorizing prescribed by the principal cities of the 
 United States. The poem should then be read by 
 the teacher. Any explanation necessary for the 
 creation of the proper mood or atmosphere must be 
 made in connection with the reading. Then the 
 children must learn to read themselves, every pause, 
 emphasis, slide, being carefully noted and understood. 
 Only then should the class be allowed to memorize 
 the words. 
 
 8. Story-telling. — Blessed is the teacher who 
 knows how to tell stories ; for she is a well-spring of 
 joy to her pupils and mistress of one of the most 
 useful tools of education. In the primary grades 
 there is reading by the pupils, reading to the pupils, 
 
METHODS OF TEACHING READING 163 
 
 and memorizing of poetry. There should also be 
 some story-telling. What story-telling is, and what 
 stories to tell, has been recently made very plain by 
 Miss Bryant's two volumes on the subject. But the 
 art of handling stories cannot be taught by books. 
 In its best form it is a natural gift chiefly; for it 
 involves the knack of gesture, intonation, and facial 
 expression to indicate surprise, anger, joy, sorrow, 
 transition, suspense, and the whole gamut of human 
 emotion. For the majority, unfortunately, it is not 
 a gift, but an acquisition. It is of course impossible 
 here to define the elusive charm of a good story- 
 teller. But a few elements of success may be briefly 
 outlined as follows : — 
 
 (i) The teacher must know and like children, and 
 have imagination enough to sympathize with their 
 point of view. 
 
 (2) She must master the story she would teU in 
 all its many-sided possibilities. The main topics 
 should be firmly held in mind, so that the narrative 
 may proceed in logical order. 
 
 (3) She must have skiU in the use of apt, simple, 
 and forceful language. 
 
 (4) She ought to have a charming personality, 
 musical intonation, clear enunciation, refined pro- 
 
1 64 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 nunciation, with all the magic of personal coloring 
 and mimicry. 
 
 (5) She must, "without the aid of lute or lyre, 
 chant or interlude, be a magician of all childish moods, 
 in the compass from grave to gay; able to touch 
 lightly the minor chords that are needed to bring out 
 the triumphant major passages." ^ 
 
 (6) "Imagination and feeling," says Richard 
 Thomas Wyche,^ "are two essential elements in 
 hterature. He who tells a story must deal with 
 these as he would with an intimate friend. . . . He 
 must feel that heroism and self-sacrifice that entered 
 into Ulysses as he said farewell to Penelope and her 
 people, and with hopes sailed away to Troy to rescue 
 Helen, the stolen queen. ... He must feel his 
 sorrow and disappointment when his ships were 
 swept out of their course and he became a wanderer 
 over the face of the deep. . . . But the mental 
 processes of expression are more than seeing and 
 feeling. One must will. He who would tell a story 
 successfully must take the bit in his teeth ; believe in 
 himself, will that his audience see with him the mental 
 pictures, and feel with him the truth of the story." 
 
 1 Chubb, The Teaching of English, The Macmillan Co., 1909, p. 44. 
 
 2 Some Great Stories and How to Tell Them, by Richaxd Thomas Wyche, 
 Newson & Co., N. Y., 1910, p. 92. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 
 
 A SUPERVISOR of schools is required constantly to 
 pass qualitative judgment on the work of teachers. 
 He ranks the abilities of his subordinates as good, 
 bad, or indifferent. Generally the teacher's license 
 or tenure of emplo)anent depends upon the rating 
 thus given. It is evident, however, that the effi- 
 ciency of teaching is determined by quantity as well 
 as by quality. One is not able, by a half-hour's ob- 
 servation alone, to say with perfect assurance that 
 the work of a given class is in all respects satisfac- 
 tory, for the method of doing a piece of work may 
 be quite correct, whUe the net result may at the same 
 time be unsatisfactory. Thus, in reading, the mode 
 of presentation may be faultless, the fluency and 
 expression of the pupils may be admirable, yet the 
 work as a whole may be a miserable farce because 
 too little ground has been covered. To be entirely 
 . certain that reading has been well taught, one must 
 
 i6s 
 
1 66 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 know not merely how glibly a given lesson is read, 
 but also the quantity of material that has been mas- 
 tered. 
 
 How shall we determine the amount read ? What 
 shall be the unit of measure ? What is a reasonable 
 amount of reading for each of the several grades of 
 an elementary school ? What is the relation of the 
 quality and quantity of the reading to the amount 
 of time devoted to the subject ? 
 
 These and kindred questions the present inquiry 
 is designed to answer. 
 
 I. The Unit. — It is evident that the page is not 
 a satisfactory unit of measure, because it is not a 
 fixed quantity. Pages vary in size, as well as in the 
 kind of type and spacing. The most perfect kind 
 of measurement is that in which the unit itself is 
 measured. Counting eggs is a crude way of esti- 
 mating value, because some eggs are large and some 
 are small. Measuring wheat by the bushel is inac- 
 curate, because the measure may vary by being level, 
 heaped, shaken down, or by some other mode of 
 modification. Therefore, when large quantities of 
 wheat are handled, the bushel is measured in terms 
 of pounds, and wheat is sold by weight. 
 
 In this study the word is the primary unit of meas- 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 167 
 
 ure. It is true that words differ in length, but, on 
 the whole, a thousand words of reading matter con- 
 stitute a pretty constant factor, unmodified by size 
 of page or type or spacing. In order to avoid the 
 use of too many figures, I have adopted the derived 
 unit of one thousand words for all quantitative com- 
 parison of reading matter. The reader will interpret 
 the figures in the tables which follow accordingly. 
 
 The blank used in the investigation was prepared 
 by the writer and sent out at the close of the term 
 ending June 30, 1910, to each of the twenty- three 
 schools in his district. The returns exhibit the work 
 of over 700 teachers and about 30,000 children. 
 
 Report on Reading 
 During present term to date : 191 
 
 P. S Bor. of Class Teacher 
 
 Note i. — In making up this estimate for mas- 
 terpieces read in the upper grades, only matter that 
 has been completed by first, second, and third read- 
 ings as required by the syllabus is counted. Under 
 (a), (b), etc., the names of masterpieces should be 
 recorded, as well as the titles of supplementary read- 
 ers in geography, history, etc. 
 
i68 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Note 2. — In estimating the amount read, count 
 the words on a full page and multiply this number 
 by the number of pages read, deducting space occu- 
 pied hy pictures, maps, etc. 
 
 Note 3. — In cases where a number of classes of 
 the same grade are taught by a departmental 
 teacher, a single blank will do for aU classes having 
 read the identical material. The names of all such 
 classes included in the report should be entered at 
 the top of the blank. The figures will represent 
 what each class has done. 
 
 1. Name of basic or grade (j) 
 
 reader {j) 
 
 2. Names of additional or {k) 
 
 supplementary readers : — 4. Names of stories 
 (a) dramatized : — 
 
 (J) (0 
 
 W {m) 
 
 W («) 
 
 [e) («) 
 
 3. Names of booksusedin {p) 
 
 reading to the class : — {q} 
 
 (/) w 
 
 « w 
 
 W {t) 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 169 
 
 W W 
 
 (v) W 
 
 (v) W 
 
 5. Number of different words of all kinds taught 
 
 (lA or iB) 
 
 6. Estimated number of words of reading matter 
 
 covered this term in basic reader 
 
 7. Estimated number of words of reading matter 
 
 covered in (a) 
 
 8. Estimated number of words of reading matter 
 
 covered in (b) 
 
 9. Estimated number of words of reading matter 
 
 covered in (c) 
 
 10. Estimated number of words of reading matter 
 
 covered in (d) 
 
 11. Estimated number of words of reading matter 
 
 covered in. (e) 
 
 Total 
 
 12. Estimated number of words of reading matter 
 
 covered in reading to the class 
 
 1 3. Number of stories dramatized to date 
 
 14. Number of minutes per week devoted to read- 
 
 ing: (a) basic or grade (+ memory and pho- 
 netics) ; (b) supplementary (all 
 
 other, including reading to class, but exclud- 
 
1 70 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 ing spelling, meaning, use, etc.) ; 
 
 (c) Total 
 
 I have inspected the above report and believe it 
 to be correct. 
 
 (Signed) Principal. 
 
 Please mail this report within three days to the 
 District Superintendent. 
 
 2. Number of Words taught in the First Year. — The 
 New York syllabus in reading requires that the pupil 
 shall be able to recognize promptly and to pronounce 
 correctly at least 300 words during the first term of 
 the first year and at least 300 additional words during 
 the second term. This study shows the following 
 results: the average number of words taught dur- 
 ing the first half-year in 23 schools is 520 ; the aver- 
 age number during the second half is iioo. These 
 schools therefore are doing much more than is de- 
 manded of them. The range of words is from 300 to 
 1575 for the first term, and from 350 to 2368 for the 
 second term. For the entire year the average is 1620; 
 the range is from 650 to 3556. The schools are there- 
 fore teaching nearly three times as many words as the 
 syllabus requires ; and when a teacher complains that 
 the board of education demands too much, the an- 
 swer is obvious. 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 171 
 
 3. Total Amount Read. — Below will be found the 
 average amount read in the several schools of the 
 district during each of the eight school years, to- 
 gether with the average time devoted to reading as a 
 separate exercise. Time is given in terms of minutes 
 per week. 
 
 Average Amount read in 23 Schools 
 
 (Unit = 1000 words) 
 Year ... 12345678 Total 
 Quantity . . 25 59 118 198 197 180 95 108 980 
 
 Time . . . 416 365 306 220 216 188 155 135 
 
 The course of study prescribes the minimum time 
 that may be devoted to English, but permits the 
 principal to apportion this total among the several 
 branches of English at his own discretion. The min- 
 ima given are as follows : — 
 
 Minimum Time for English 
 
 Year ... 12345678 
 
 Time ... 450 510 450 375 375 375; 360 320 
 
 As grammar, word-study, composition, etc., de- 
 mand more time in the higher grades, reading time 
 gradually tapers off. 
 
 The maximum amount of reading is done during 
 the fourth, fifth, and sixth years. Several reasons 
 
172 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 may be assigned for this. First, tliese are the grades 
 where much supplementary reading is demanded in 
 history, geography, science, and Hterature. Sec- 
 ondly, in the highest grades, the pupil prepares his les- 
 sons out of school hours, and does much of his reading 
 at home. Finally, in the seventh and eighth years, 
 masterpieces of English are read. These are very 
 difficult and require three separate readings, as fol- 
 lows : the first, to get a general idea of the argument, 
 drift, or plot ; the second, to master the difficulties of 
 word-study, construction, figure, or allusion; the 
 third, to secure expressive reading of selected pas- 
 sages. 
 
 4. The Books used in Reading by Children. — In 
 New York we have an open book list. The board of 
 education, on the recommendation of the board of 
 superintendents, puts upon the list all the books and 
 general supplies deemed worthy ; and upon each prin- 
 cipal, subject to the approval of the district super- 
 intendent, devolves the duty of selecting from the 
 official list the supplies used in his school. A certain 
 per capita allowance of money is apportioned to each 
 school, and the board of education puts no restric- 
 tion upon principals save that they must order from 
 the list and keep within their allowance. 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 173 
 
 The result of this system is, in the judgment of the 
 writer, very satisfactory. The principal has thus a 
 chance to assert his individuality in the choice of the 
 materials of instruction. Responsibility goes with 
 power. If he shows poor judgment, he must bear the 
 consequences. If he wastes his substance early in 
 the year on expensive books and later lacks funds for 
 paper and pencils, — the bread and butter of a school, 
 — he alone is to blame. The knowledge of such re- 
 sponsibility sobers him into reflection, and makes him 
 a far more valuable executive than he would be if 
 some one benevolently undertook to do all his think- 
 ing for him. 
 
 With an open book list, one would naturally expect 
 to find great variety in the choice of books. The 
 following partial Hst of readers used in the several 
 grades by the schools of this district shows that such 
 expectation is fully realized. No class is limited to a 
 single reader. The number of books read in each 
 half-year grade during the first three years averages 
 about three per class, and ranges from two to six. 
 
 First Year 
 
 Ward's Primer and First; Jones's First; Aldine 
 Primer and First ; Cyr's Primer and First ; Baldwin's 
 
174 THE PRINCIPLES^ OF TEACHING READING 
 
 First ; Culture Readers, I (Miss Merrill) ; Finger 
 Play Reader, I (Davis and Julien) ; New Education, 
 First ; Graded Literature, I ; The McCloskey Primer ; 
 Stepping Stones, I ; Child Life, I (Blaisdell) ; Lan- 
 sing's Rhymes and Stories; Folk Lore Stories and 
 Proverbs (Wiltse) ; Eugene Field Reader ; Pathways 
 in Nature and Literature; Summer's Primer; Pro- 
 gressive Road, I (Ettinger) ; Horace Mann, First ; 
 Art and Life Primer (Jacobs). 
 
 Second Year 
 
 Ward's Second and Third; Heath's Second; 
 Fables and Rhymes for Beginners ; Pets and Compan- 
 ions; Brumbaugh's Second; Blaisdell's Child Life, 
 II; Wilson's Nature Study in Elementary Schools; 
 Wade and Sylvester, II ; Wake Robin, I ; Baker and 
 Carpenter's Second; Cyr's Graded Art Reader; 
 Baldwin's Second ; New Education, Second ; Culture, 
 Second; Graded Literature, Second; Cyr's Second; 
 Grimm's Fairy Tales ; Book of Plays for Little Actors ; 
 In Mythland ; Reynard the Fox ; Aldine, Second. 
 
 Third Year 
 
 Ward's Third ; Heath's Third ; Buckwalter's Third ; 
 A Child's Book of Poetry; Blaisdell's Child Life, 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 175 
 
 III ; All the Year Round, III ; Grimm's Fairy Tales ; 
 Baker and Carpenter's Third; Jones's Third; Child 
 Life in Tale and Fable; Graded Literature, Third; 
 Feathers and Fur; Graded Classic, III; Hazen's 
 Third ; Baldwin's Third ; Pinocchio ; Alice in Wonder- 
 land ; Cinderella and Other Stories ; Stepping Stones, 
 III ; Cyr's Third ; Four New York Boys. 
 
 Fourth Year 
 
 Heath's Fourth; Wake Robin Series, II; Little 
 Wanderers; Good Health for Girls and Boys; 
 Twilight Stories; Four New York Boys; Sprague's 
 Classic Reader, IV ; Good Citizenship (Richman and 
 Wallach) ; Baker and Carpenter's Fourth ; Stories of 
 American Pioneers; Nature Study Made Easy; 
 Longman's Geographical Reader; Stepping Stones, 
 IV; Graded Literature, IV; Maury's Geography; 
 StraubenmiiUer's Home Geography; Little Lame 
 Prince ; Dickens's Christmas Carol ; Robinson Cru- 
 soe; Spyri's Heidi; Brumbaugh's Fourth; Dodge's 
 Elementary Geography. 
 
 Fifth Year 
 
 Four New York Boys; Graded Literature, V; 
 Black Beauty; Brumbaugh's Fifth; Geography 
 
176 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Primer (Cornman and Gerson) ; Heath's Fifth ; Cyr's 
 Fifth ; Geography of New York (Smith and Perry) ; 
 ChannJig's First Lessons in United States History; 
 Baker and Carpenter's Fifth ; Barnes's Elementary 
 History; Kingsley's Greek Heroes; Shaw's Discov- 
 erers and Explorers; King of the Golden River; 
 Stepping Stones, V. 
 
 Sixth Year 
 
 Heath's Sixth; Carpenter's South America; Gulick's 
 Town and City; Graded Literature, V and VI; 
 Dodge's Geography, IV; Jones's Sixth; Builders of 
 Our Country ; How to keep Well ; Baker and Car- 
 penter's Sixth; Frye's Complete Geography; Tarr 
 and McMurry's Europe ; Stoddard's Lectures ; Poems 
 of American Bravery (Mathews) ; Blaisdell's Hero 
 Stories from American History; Jewett's Town and 
 City; Tarr and McMurry's Geography, II; Eggles- 
 ton's First Book in American History ; Tanglewood 
 Tales ; Hawthorne's Wonder Book ; The Man With- 
 out a Country; Grandfather's Chair. 
 
 Seventh Year 
 
 Courtship of Miles Standish; Snow Bound; 
 Irving's Sketch Book; Evangeline; Rolfe's Tales 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 177 
 
 from English History; Franklin's Autobiography; 
 Great Stone Face; Tales of the White Hills; Bur- 
 roughs's Birds and Bees ; Lessons in Hygiene ; Birds 
 and Bees and Sharp Eyes. 
 
 Eighth Year 
 
 Lady of the Lake ; Julius Caesar ; Sohrab and Rus- 
 tum; Gettysburg Address; Epoch-making Papers; 
 Merchant of Venice; Lamb's Tales from Shake- 
 speare; Washington's Farewell Address; Lincoln's 
 Second Inaugural ; Warner's A-Hunting of the Deer ; 
 Adams's Commercial Geography ; Tarr's New Physi- 
 cal Geography; Webster's Reply to Hayne. 
 
 5. Reading to Pupils. — The New York syllabus 
 requires the teacher to read to the pupil during the 
 first four years of the course. The subjects and books 
 to be used for this purpose are suggested, and the four 
 aims to be kept in view are enumerated as follows : 
 " (i) To develop an interest in reading, (2) to culti- 
 vate the imagination, (3) to present a model of ex- 
 pression, and (4) to create ideals of right living." 
 While the requirements of the course limit such work 
 to the first four grades, this investigation shows that 
 the schools of one district voluntarily continue the 
 same through all the remaining grades. The follow- 
 
1 78 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 ing table exhibits the average amount read to children \ 
 in each of the eight years : — 
 
 Amount read to Children 
 
 (Unit = looo words) 
 Grade ...12345678 Total 
 Amount . . 42 62 64 70 68 51 34 16 407 
 
 The books from which this reading is done are very- 
 numerous. We give a partial list selected from the 
 returns : — 
 
 First Year 
 
 Stories to tell Children; Pets and Companions; 
 Legends of the Red Children (Pratt) ; Boston Col- 
 lection of Kindergarten Stories ; Rhymes and Fables 
 (Haaren) ; Grimms' Fairy Tales ; Tale of Peter 
 Rabbit; Three Bears; Child's Garden of Verse; 
 R. L. Stevenson Reader; In the Child's World 
 (Poulson) ; Andersen's Fairy Tales ; ^sop's Fables ; 
 Mother Goose Rhymes; Nursery Stories and 
 Rhymes (Poulson). 
 
 Second Year 
 
 Grimms' Fairy Tales; Book of Fables; Health 
 of Little Folks ; Scudder's Fables and Folk Stories ; 
 Month by Month (WilUs and Farmer); All the 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING lyg 
 
 Year Round ; Five Minute Stories (Richards) ; 
 Child Life, II; Parts of Children's Library Books; 
 Stories to tell to Children ; Andersen's Fairy Tales ; 
 Stevenson's Poems; Famous Stories Every Child 
 Should Know. 
 
 Third Year 
 
 Black Beauty ; Beautiful Joe ; Young Folks' Fairy 
 Stories ; Hiawatha ; How to tell Stories to Children ; 
 Fifty Famous Stories; Robinson Crusoe; Blue 
 Fairy Book; Poems of Longfellow and Whittier; 
 Little Lame Prince ; Stories of Long Ago (Kupfer) ; 
 Shy Neighbors ; Granny's Wonderful Chair (Browne) ; 
 Our Birds and their Nestlings. 
 
 Fourth Year 
 
 Glimpses at the Plant World; The Wild World; 
 Little Lord Fauntleroy ; King of the Golden River ; 
 Boys of Other Countries; The Wonder Book; 
 Alice in Wonderland; Arabian Nights; Joyous 
 Story of Toto; The Dog of Flanders (Ouida) ; The 
 Story of the Romans; Poems from Holmes; A 
 Home Geography of New York City; Jungle 
 Book. 
 
i8o THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Fifth Year 
 
 Robinson Crusoe; Blaisdell's Story of American 
 
 History; The True Story of Abraham Lincoln; 
 
 Longfellow Leaflets; Heroes of American History; 
 
 Captain January; Good Citizenship (Richman) ; 
 
 The Story of Patsy ; Swiss Family Robinson ; Dole's 
 
 The Young Citizen; Discoverers and Explorers 
 
 (Shaw) ; Hoosier Schoolboy ; Stories from Mark 
 
 Twain; Nature Study Made Easy; Horatius 
 
 (Macaulay) ; Ulman's Landmark History of New 
 
 York. 
 
 Sixth Year 
 
 Carpenter's Geographical Reader; Tarr and 
 
 McMurry's Geography ; Gordy's History of United 
 
 States ; McMaster's School History of United States ; 
 
 News Items brought by Children ; Ethics of Success 
 
 (Thayer, Bk. II) ; Man Without a Country ; A 
 
 Ghl of '76. 
 
 Seventh Year 
 
 Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Story of Acadia; 
 Chronicles of Tarrytown, etc. (Bacon) ; Literary 
 Pilgrimages in New England; Dickens's Child's 
 History of England; Rolfe's Tales from English 
 History; Carpenter's North America; Mowry's 
 English History. 
 
 J 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING i8i 
 
 Eighth Year 
 
 Shakespeare; Literary Pilgrimages in England 
 (Bacon) ; Plutarch's Lives ; Literary Digest ; Cur- 
 rent Events; Poems of American Patriotism 
 (Mathews) ; Open Sesame, II, III ; David Harum ; 
 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm; Leak in the Dike; 
 Fiske's American Revolution. 
 
 6. Relation of Quantity, Quality, and Time. — 
 During the school year ending June, 1910, the writer 
 made a personal examination of the reading ability 
 of more than 15,000 children, registered in 333 classes. 
 He is therefore able to compare reading efficiency 
 with the time devoted to reading. The results were 
 recorded in each class at the time of the visit and 
 were afterwards summarized by schools. The suc- 
 cess of the reading was indicated by letters, as 
 follows: A, B-f-, B, represent satisfactory work, 
 A being the highest grade; C and D represent un- 
 satisfactory work. In the table which follows are 
 shown in close juxtaposition the number of the school 
 (fictitious), the amount read in eight years, the aver- 
 age time allowance per grade, and my estimate of 
 the reading of the school. Only eighteen of the 
 
1 82 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 twenty-three schools are included in this comparison 
 because five of the number lack one or more of the 
 upper grades. 
 
 Comparison of Time, Quantity, and Quality 
 
 School .. 123456789 
 
 Amount . . 1017 830 781 1146 1269 653 729 978 956 
 
 Time . . . 248 232 240 244 235 240 233 336 206 
 
 Proficiency. B B-|- B+ C B-fB+ B+ B-f- B 
 
 {Continued) 
 
 School . . 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 
 
 Amount . . 988 813 948 1784 917 923 1147 1270 816 
 
 Time . . . 331 233 281 252 251 252 248 236 236 
 
 Proficiency . B B+ B+ B+ B+ B-f- B+ B B + 
 
 So far as time and efficiency are concerned, this 
 table demonstrates once more the well-known prin- 
 ciple that educational success is due far more to 
 masterful administration than to the individual abil- 
 ity of teachers. The four schools marked B employ 
 on an average 255 minutes for reading, the twelve 
 schools rated B+ use only 252 minutes, while the C 
 school has 244 minutes. It will be recalled that Dr. 
 Rice in his spelling investigations discovered similar 
 conditions. The school that had only six minutes a 
 day could spell quite as well as another that had 
 fifty minutes. Expert supervision is the dominating 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 183 
 
 factor of the educational situation. In a well-super- 
 vised school the children are proficient in their 
 studies; in a poorly supervised school they are de- 
 ficient. This proposition has no exceptions, and 
 holds, within limits, irrespective of the time that 
 may be devoted by the course of study to any given 
 subject. 
 
 A comparison of quantity and quality seems to 
 indicate that fluency in reading varies indirectly as 
 the amount read. The B + schools read on an aver- 
 age 968 units in eight years. The B schools read 
 1057 units. The C school reads 1146 units. This 
 indicates that when too much is attempted the qual- 
 ity deteriorates. If you test the children of a class 
 that has read an abnormally large amount, you 
 generally find them deficient. They do not know 
 the meaning of words, and therefore read without flu- 
 ency and without proper expression. They confirm 
 your suspicion that they have not been taught read- 
 ing, but have been merely dragged over the ground. 
 Such work is inefiicient and demoralizing. In the 
 first place it discourages children and oppresses them 
 with a sense of failure. But the essential thing is 
 to establish in the child the habit of success, which 
 can only be accomplished by giving him a finishable 
 
1 84 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 job. Lessons must be so simple that they can be 
 accompHshed, and so mteresting that they awaken 
 enthusiasm. In the second place, going too fast 
 with children begets superficial habits and inaccurate 
 knowledge. This is one of the sins laid at the door 
 of the American school by European observers. We 
 must therefore avoid the fault of undertaking too 
 much as well as the fault of doing too little. Ac- 
 cording to this study, the best results are obtained 
 by schools which read in the several grades the 
 amount indicated in the following table : — 
 
 Average Amount read by the Best Schools 
 
 (Unit = looo words) 
 Grade ... 12345678 Total 
 Amount . . 29 62 120 200 200 168 90 107 976 
 
 7. Dramatization. — The possibilities of dramatiza- 
 tion have only recently been realized to any consider- 
 able extent by the elementary school. The main 
 purpose of the exercise is to put meaning into words. 
 Meaning consists of thought and feeling. The 
 theatre is a very potent factor in human society. 
 From the dramatic dance of the savage to the 
 Shakespearean play we have an illustration of how 
 man tries to realize and express the infinite variety 
 
 J 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 185 
 
 of human emotion, and the evolution of motive into 
 action. The child's play is a "continuous perform- 
 ance" in the theatrical sense. With such an in- 
 stinct in possession of the infant soul, why should the 
 school longer neglect to employ so useful an agent in 
 the service of education ? 
 
 Particularly useful is dramatization in a cosmo- 
 politan city like New York, where the schools are 
 crowded with foreigners and the children of foreign- 
 ers. My own district is not known as a community 
 of foreigners; yet ten per cent of our children are 
 ItaUans, and possibly twenty-five per cent are He- 
 brews of foreign parentage. The spoken and written 
 symbols that are thrust upon children in such pro- 
 fusion have in many cases little or no content. The 
 teacher vainly imagines that words "mean what 
 they say." This is never the case. Her words 
 carry her mature experience. The books children 
 read convey meaning packed into them by an adult 
 writer. To the child, especially the child from a 
 foreign or uncultured home, words have often but 
 little significance. Convince yourself of this by 
 asking a pupil to explain the meaning of words found 
 in his books. One was asked to tell what were the 
 " Oxford Provisions." He replied : " Salt, beef, ham, 
 
1 86 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 bacon." Another was told to explain what a city 
 of refuge was for. He said : "When a man had been 
 murdered accidentally, he might jump up and run 
 to it." I picked out eight words at random from a 
 page of Longfellow's "Miles Standish" which a class 
 had read, and asked for their meaning. About one 
 pupil in ten could answer. 
 
 When children "act out" a story, the words give 
 up their real meaning. This is true whether the sub- 
 ject be a nursery rhyme, a fairy tale, a play, or an 
 episode in history. I have been encouraging dra- 
 matic exercises in my district for some time ; but these 
 returns show a far more extensive use of them than I 
 had suspected. Considerably more than half of all 
 the classes have had dramatization. In one school, 
 out of forty-seven teachers reporting, all but three 
 have dramatized. Below will be found a selection of 
 some of the pieces in each grade that have been 
 dramatized in these schools. The report does not 
 include the dramatic reading that is insisted on in the 
 regular reading hour, nor does it include dramatic 
 reading done by teacher or children in reading to the 
 class. 
 
 There is one serious danger against which a note of 
 warning should be issued. The tendency in school 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 187 
 
 dramatics is to become theatrical ; to put the empha- 
 sis on showy effects; to dress children up in fancy 
 costumes ; to exhibit them before the public. School 
 work of any kind degenerates and loses its educational 
 value as soon as it is used primarily for show purposes. 
 This is true of dramatics no less than of other exer- 
 cises. Therefore, keep the work simple. Confine it 
 chiefly to the class room ; and remember that its 
 primary purpose is to make vivid the meaning of 
 what is read. 
 
 From the reports submitted, the following selec- 
 tion of pieces dramatized in the several grades is 
 made. 
 
 First Grade 
 
 The Wind and the Sun ; The Fox and the Grapes ; 
 The Three Goats ; Little Boy Blue ; The Three Bears ; 
 The Three Little Pigs ; The Straw, the Coal, and the 
 Bean ; The Butterfly ; The Organ Grinder ; The Hare 
 and the Tortoise; The Dog and his Shadow; The 
 Lion and the Mouse; The Thrifty Squirrels; Little 
 Jack Horner; Henny Penny; Puss in Boots; The 
 Dove and the Bee; Five Little Chickadees; Jonni- 
 cake ; Old Mother Hubbard ; Lambikin ; Jack and 
 Jill ; Simple Simon ; Tom Thumb ; The Beehive. 
 
1 88 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Second Grade 
 
 The Wolf and the Seven Kids; Chicken Little; 
 Jack and the Beanstalk ; The Little Red Hen ; Billy 
 Binks; How Mrs. White Hen Helped Rose; Little 
 Shepherdess ; Drowning of Mr. Leghorn ; Starving of 
 Mrs. Leghorn; Little Red Riding Hood; Sleeping 
 Apple; Three BiUy Goats Gruff; The Owl and the 
 Grasshopper; The Pied Piper; The Elves and the 
 Shoemaker ; The Boy who cried Wolf ; The Pigs and 
 the Giant ; Little Gingerbread Boy ; Sleeping Beauty ; 
 The Little Pine Tree; Washington and the Cherry 
 Tree ; The Brahmin, the Tiger, and the Jackal ; Han- 
 sel and Gretel ; Clytie; Little Match Girl. 
 
 Third Grade 
 
 Pinocchio ; The Magic Swan ; Hiawatha ; The Crow 
 and the Pit'cher ; A; Visit from the Months ; What Mrs. 
 Squirrel Thinks; The Ant and the Mouse; How to 
 get Breakfast ; The Spider and the Fly ; Two Little 
 Kittens ; The Blind Man and the Lame Man ; The 
 Town Musicians; The Golden Touch; Cinderella; 
 Tillie's Christmas ; The Captain's Daughter ; Pan- 
 dora's Box ; The Leak in the Dike ; WiUiam Tell ; J 
 The First Woodpecker; The Frog and the Ox; HowB 
 
A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF READING 189 
 
 the World came to an End ; The Fisherman and His 
 Wife. 
 
 Fourth Grade 
 
 The Honest Woodman ; The Town Mouse and the 
 Country Mouse ; The Miller of the Dee ; The Bell of 
 Atri ; Rip Van Winkle ; The Book of Thanks ; Supper 
 at the Mill ; The Boy Who Tried ; The Brave Drum- 
 mer Boy ; How Andy saved the Train ; The Emperor 
 and the Abbot ; The Stolen Child ; The Cat and the 
 Mouse as Partners; How Jack O'Lantern Fright- 
 ened away the Indian; The Coming of Hudson; 
 Settlement of Manhattan; Daniel Webster's First 
 Case ; The Story of Joseph ; How I turned the Grind- 
 stone. 
 
 Fifth Grade 
 
 The Fox and the Horse ; Christian and Apollyon ; 
 Christmas at the Cratchits; The Buying of Man- 
 hattan ; Selection from As You Like It ; Selection 
 from A Midsummer-Night's Dream; Columbus; 
 The Jackal and the Partridge; How the Thrushes 
 crossed the Sea; Surrender of New Amsterdam; 
 Saving of John Smith's Life by Pocahontas ; Salem 
 Witchcraft; The Pilgrims; The Snake Skin and the 
 Bullets; Braddock's Defeat. 
 
IQO THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 Sixth Grade 
 
 King of the Golden River; Moses at the Fair; 
 Departure of the Clermont; Horatius at the Bridge; 
 Arnold the Traitor ; The Miraculous Pitcher ; Betsy 
 Ross ; Nathan Hale ; Boston Massacre ; John Brown; 
 Barbara Frietchie. 
 
 Seventh Grade 
 Christmas Carol ; Courtship of Miles Standish. 
 
 Eighth Grade 
 
 Julius Caesar; Merchant of Venice; Evangeline; 
 The Bird's Christmas Carol ; Lady of the Lake. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 A READING TEST 
 
 The test is an indispensable part of teaching. 
 Any effort or device which attempts to ascertain 
 whether a pupil has done his work, or how well he has 
 done it, is a test. It may be formal or informal. It 
 may be a part of the recitation, or distinct from it. 
 It may be applied by the teacher, the principal, or 
 the superintendent. However, and whenever, and 
 by whomsoever used, the test is necessary if standard 
 and proficiency are to be secured and maintained. 
 That modern doctrine of education which puts all 
 the emphasis upon "process" and "effort" and 
 "interest" and "good intentions" to the neglect of 
 results is vicious and false and the bane of the pro- 
 fession. 
 
 Granted that reading should be tested, how is it to 
 be done? Manifestly we shall have to divide the 
 problem into several parts and consider each sepa- 
 rately. We have already discussed reading as a me- 
 chanical process and reading as Hterature. The 
 
 191 
 
192 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 different standards to be applied to these two phases 
 have also been explained under the head of "class 
 criticism. " (See page 154.) 
 
 I. Analysis of the Problem. — In New York City 
 the board of superintendents requires, principals to 
 rate the reading efficiency of pupils who are about to 
 graduate from an elementary school under the follow- 
 ing items : — 
 
 (i) Amount of literature read in class during the 
 year now closing. 
 
 (2) Power to interpret the matter so read. 
 
 (3) Ability to read aloud accurately and intelli- 
 
 gently new reading matter. 
 
 (4) Power to give understandingly the substance of 
 
 a paragraph after a single reading. 
 
 (5) Skill in the use of a dictionary. 
 
 (i) Amount. — This heading calls for the quanti- 
 tative measurement of reading as discussed in Chap- 
 ter VI. 
 
 In the high school tests of the Regents in New 
 York and in college entrance tests, quantity is an 
 important part of the examination. The student] 
 must read a certain number of specified books and 
 show that he has mastered their contents. The| 
 reason for these demands is that reading is treate( 
 
A READING TEST 193 
 
 chiefly as literature and only incidentally as a mode 
 of expression. In secondary and higher institutions 
 "elocution" is under the ban, and thought content is 
 practically all there is of reading. 
 
 (2) Interpretation. — Here is the first attempt to 
 measure the power of the pupil. Again the demand 
 is concerned with content. "Interpret" may, how- 
 ever, be taken to mean intelligent vocal rendition. 
 Sometimes the best interpretation of a poem or other 
 literary masterpiece is adequate oral expression. 
 But interpretation includes also explanation of words 
 and phrases, of figures and allusions. A pupil must 
 be reasonably proficient in this phase of reading be- 
 fore he can be regarded satisfactory. 
 
 (3) Reading Aloud. — I wonder whether tiiere is 
 enough oral reading in the schools of aU grades. 
 Young people sing, and play on musical instruments 
 of various kinds, and dance, and play cards ; but how 
 many are able to entertain a company by an accept- 
 able reading or recitation? Elsewhere in this vol- 
 ume reasons are given why silent reading alone is 
 insufiicient to bring out all there is of meaning, 
 especially meaning which consists of feeling. There- 
 fore a reading test, to be adequate, must require vocal 
 utterance. Only in this way may we know the 
 
194 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 quality of voice, the accuracy and effectiveness of 
 pronunciation and enunciation. Only thus shall we 
 discover errors due to bad habits and inherited de- 
 fects of speech. 
 
 The requirement of the board of superintendents 
 not only calls for reading aloud, but specifies that the 
 test shall be on new matter. In this way we deter- 
 mine the pupil's power. We learn something of his 
 skUl in pronunciation, of the extent of his vocabulary, 
 and of the extent to which reading has become an 
 efficient instrument for the acquisition of knowledge 
 and pleasure. 
 
 (4) The Abstract. — The next part of the test calls 
 for the substance of a paragraph in the language of 
 the pupil after a single reading. Here we have an 
 entirely new point of view. The pupil no longer deals 
 with individual words and sentences, but goes on to 
 a larger unity, which he is obliged to grasp at a glance, 
 and to express in condensed form. The making of 
 abstracts is the very essence of what we call " study. " 
 It is therefore exceedingly valuable. It is a sure cure 
 for the abominable habit of memorizing the words 
 of texts in history, geography, and other lessons. 
 Pupils in all grades should be frequently required to 
 'make oral abstracts of reading matter, — not merely 
 
A READING TEST 195 
 
 of paragraphs, but of entire lessons. I sometimes ask 
 a pupil in the upper grammar grades to give me the 
 story of Evangeline, of Julius Caesar, or some other 
 literary work in ten sentences. After the fourth 
 year these abstracts should be written and may be 
 assigned as home-work. Great pains should be 
 taken to have the exercises abstracts rather than 
 extracts. They should be brief. They should be 
 carefully scrutinized by the teacher. In this way we 
 shall have a guarantee that the pupil has studied 
 his lesson; for it is impossible to write a good ab- 
 stract without studying with care what is to be 
 reduced in bulk. 
 
 (5) The Dictionary Habit. — A part of the equip- 
 ment to which every pupil above the fourth grade is 
 entitled is a habit of going to the dictionary when a 
 doubt arises as to the meaning or pronunciation of a 
 word. Hence skill in the use of the dictionary is a 
 proper subject of inquiry in a reading test. 
 
 2. A High Standard. — Only the best reading is 
 good enough for promotion ; therefore a high stand- 
 ard of proficiency will be necessary. The writer 
 has adopted in his district the standard of ninety per 
 cent as a condition for a satisfactory rating of a class 
 or school in reading. That is, ninety per cent of all 
 
196 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 the pupils examined must read with adequate fluency 
 and expression the matter used for the test. 
 
 Lowell has said of reading: "I should be half 
 inclined to say that any reading is better than none, 
 allaying the crudeness of the statement by the Yankee 
 proverb, which teUs us that, though ' all deacons are 
 good, there's odds on deacons.' " The truth of this 
 dictum we may admit, but it does not follow that we 
 shall be justified in promoting large numbers of chil- 
 dren who are deficient in reading ; because if we do, 
 these pupils will certainly come to grief sooner or later 
 in their attempt to pass through the grades. Being 
 unable to read with ease, they have difficulty in 
 mastering their books, and thus they become dis- 
 couraged and drop out of school. 
 
 3. Every Pupil Tested. — A supervisor who aims 
 to ascertain the efiiciency of a class in reading must 
 apply his test to every pupil. A great deal of hum- 
 bug is covered up by the opposite procedure. A su- 
 perintendent may go into a class and ask the teacher 
 to show how well the children can read. She calls 
 upon John, and Mary, and Susan, and three or four 
 others, all star pupils, and the superintendent rubs 
 his hands, compliments the teacher, and goes away 
 satisfied that reading is well taught in that class. If 
 
A READING TEST 197 
 
 he had insisted upon hearing every member of the 
 class, he might have discovered that fifty per cent 
 could not read at all with any adequate degree of 
 success ; and perhaps even the star pupils who per- 
 formed so well were trained by aliother teacher or 
 school. Every pupil should know what he is alleged 
 to have been taught. We ask the teacher to name 
 the pages or lessons that have been mastered by the 
 class. From among the lessons thus indicated, the 
 material for the test is taken. If the failures are 
 more than ten per cent, the class is deficient in 
 reading. 
 
 Such a test brings home to a teacher two things she 
 must never forget ; namely, first, that she is respon- 
 sible for the progress of every pupil in her class ; and, 
 secondly, that she must drill and drill and drill until 
 what she has taught is a real and permanent posses- 
 sion of the pupil. 
 
 4. Relative Value of Reading. — English and num- 
 ber are admittedly the most important subjects in 
 the elementary curriculum. If a pupil be deficient 
 in these two, he should not be promoted ; for he will 
 be unable to do the work of the next grade. Read- 
 ing is an important part of English. How much 
 should it count in a scheme of promotion by points ? 
 
1 98 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 On the basis of a hundred, I would put the following 
 valuation on mere ability to read with fluency and 
 intelligence, leaving out of consideration spelling, 
 memorizing, grammar, and composition: first year, 
 20 points ; second to sixth years inclusive, 10 points ; 
 seventh and eighth years, 5 points. 
 
 The total value of English (including penmanship) 
 in the elementary school for promotion purposes I 
 should put at 45 points in all grades. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 THE HYGIENE OF READING 
 
 I. Sufficient Light. — The first requisite for reading 
 with ease and comfort is a sufficient amount of Hght 
 from the right source. Authorities on school hy- 
 giene unite in demanding that the amount of trans- 
 parent glass surface admitting light shall be from 
 one-fifth to one-fourth of the floor surface of the room. 
 A standard schoolroom, 30 X 25 ft., should therefore 
 contain not less than 150 sq. ft. of lighting surface. 
 This should furnish to the pupil seated in the most 
 unfavorable situation an illumination of at least 
 fifty candle metres (that is, the light of fifty standard 
 candles at a distance of one metre). Various devices 
 may have to be resorted to in order to secure the 
 proper diffusion of Hght, such as factory ribbed glass, 
 Luxfer prisms, shades, etc. The source of light should 
 be from the left, or left and rear. In spite of the dicta 
 of the doctors, there are stiU many ill-lighted school- 
 rooms. InteUigent teachers can do much to remedy 
 these conditions by bringing them to the attention 
 of responsible authorities. In most cases these 
 
 199 
 
200 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 unhygienic rooms are in old buildings inherited by 
 the present administration from a preceding genera- 
 tion. Unless some one lodges a complaint, serious 
 defects may continue indefinitely. 
 
 But if schools fail in their duty in such things, 
 Vhat shaU we say of the average home, where the 
 pupil does his reading and studying ? Many parents 
 are ignorant of the laws of hygiene, and others who 
 know better are careless. And hence children are 
 allowed to sit in dark corners to read and write and 
 are never definitely instructed as to the proper direc- 
 tion for the source of light. Recently the writer 
 visited the home of a boy who attends one of the pub- 
 lic high schools. The lad's desk is so situated that 
 the gaslight falls over his right shoulder. In this 
 unhygienic situation the boy has prepared all his 
 home lessons since the day he was admitted to the 
 primary school. A suggestion from a thoughtful 
 teacher would have taught him early to change the 
 position of his desk. 
 
 A day or two ago a girl was observed in an elevated 
 train on her way home from school. The car was 
 crowded and poorly lighted. But the girl was doubled 
 over, intent upon her home-work. Although she 
 could scarcely see the figures she was writing, she 
 
THE HYGIENE OF READING 20I 
 
 never took her eyes off the paper for an instant dur- 
 ing the entire journey from Sixty-Seventh Street to 
 Tremont. A girl old enough to attend the Normal 
 College ought to have better instruction in personal 
 hygiene. 
 
 A contemplation of home conditions in the poor 
 quarters of a city should warn teachers against the 
 imposition of an unreasonable amount of home-work. 
 In thousands of f amihes the entire household occupies 
 a single hving-room, which may also be the kitchen 
 and bedroom. I know of a case where a family of 
 thirteen persons and four live chickens lived in one 
 room. What chance has a child amid such surround- 
 ings to do home-work requiring close attention ? To 
 ameliorate the circumstances of such unfortunate 
 children, study-rooms have been opened in some of 
 our evening recreation centres, where children may 
 do their home-work in comfort under the supervision 
 of a teacher. Strange things are sometimes accident- 
 ally discovered in study-rooms. One child was found 
 recently whose home-work consisted of the writing 
 of the following sentence one thousand times: "I 
 must obey my teacher." School hygiene is in a 
 primitive state as long as we find teachers who are 
 guilty of such crimes against childhood. 
 
202 THE . PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 2. Tinge and Surface of Paper. — Black ink on 
 white paper is the most effective combination for 
 reading. No other contrast is so great as this. A 
 flat, unreflecting surface is necessary for school books. 
 Glossy paper reflects light regularly and is therefore 
 injurious to the eye. In order to produce good half- 
 tone illustrations, the publisher often uses calen- 
 dered ^ paper for the entire book. Line drawings are 
 more satisfactory than half-tones, because they may 
 be printed on a dull surface ; but they are more expen- 
 sive because they require the services of an artist. 
 The use of calendered paper, therefore, is always in the 
 interest of economy in printing, but not in reading. 
 
 The writing on the school blackboard requires 
 careful attention. After the writing has been erased 
 with a board-rubber, small particles of chalk still 
 cling to the surface and give it a gray color, thus 
 reducing the contrast upon which the legibility of the 
 writing depends. Therefore, at least once a day 
 blackboards should be washed. The writing should 
 be large enough to be clearly visible from the last row 
 of seats. The reflection of light is usually such that 
 from certain angles it is impossible to read the writing. 
 
 1 Calender is a machine consisting of two cylinders between which 
 paper is run to give it a smooth, glossy surface. 
 
THE HYGIENE OF READING 203 
 
 In such cases matter to be read or copied should be 
 placed where all the children can see it, or pupils 
 should be asked to change their seats. I have exam- 
 ined the eyes of a large number of school children, 
 and have found scores of cases of defective vision, 
 where the defect was unsuspected by either the pupil 
 himself or by his parents and teachers. Many such 
 unfortimates are seated by careless teachers in the 
 rear of the room where they are unable to read what 
 they are asked to copy, e.g., lists of spelling words, 
 problems in arithmetic, and the like. In this way 
 they learn wrong forms, or fail to understand what is 
 explained ; then they fall behind in their studies, lose 
 interest in school, and presently are known as "bad" 
 boys or girls. 
 
 So important is the proper use of the blackboard, 
 that in the New York Training Schools the student 
 receives special instruction and drill in the matter, 
 and on the blank filled out by principals for the 
 renewal of temporary licenses, "skiU in blackboard 
 work" is one of the items reported on. The recent 
 introduction of arm-movement writing in all the 
 grades and schools of New York has enormously 
 improved the blackboard writing of teachers, and 
 has thus been a great boon to children. 
 
204 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 3. Illustrations. — Anything that helps 1;o make 
 the meaning clear tends to reduce the time and effort 
 required in reading. Illustrations, therefore, are an 
 important phase of the hygiene of reading. School 
 readers of the present leave little to be desired in the 
 matter of pictures. Their pubhshers spend vast sums 
 to secure artists of skill and reputation. The result 
 is that the little ones look upon the best of these 
 books with affectionate regard. Such an appeal to 
 interest eliminates the drudgery from reading and 
 doubles the efficiency of the teaching. 
 
 School histories are illuminated by portraits of the 
 principal actors in the drama, by facsimiles of im- 
 portant documents, by hterary sources, by diagrams 
 and maps. All these help to put meaning into the 
 narrative and thus to reduce the labor required to 
 master the content of the book. 
 
 Illustrative material in geography has become very 
 valuable. Text-books are filled with diagrams, maps, 
 and pictures of landscape features, buildings, and 
 people. The stereoscope, museum, excursion, and 
 picture library all help to make the learning easy 
 and effective. 
 
 Even tables of contents and indexes are related to 
 economy of reading. These give one a bird's-eye 
 
THE HYGIENE OF READING 205 
 
 view of the contents of a book and enable one to turn 
 with a minimum of effort to any desired portion of 
 the text. Not only should every book be provided 
 with one or both of these helps, but the teacher should 
 make it a part of his business to train children in the 
 proper use of them. Everywhere and always it is our 
 duty to reduce the friction of the machine and thus 
 to increase the available energy devoted to the educa- 
 tional output. 
 
 4. Length of Line. — On the proper length of line 
 for rapidity and ease of reading there is considerable 
 variation among authorities. The reason for this is 
 that the question is one largely of opinion, no con- 
 clusive experimentation having been made as yet. 
 Weber ^ requires a maximum line of 150 mm. and a 
 minimum of 100 mm. He recommends that school 
 books be printed in lines of 140-150 mm., or nearly 
 six inches. Cohn^ thinks a Hne should never- be 
 more than 90-110 mm. (4.3 in.). Huey^ indorses 
 Dearborn's demand for a Une of 75-80 mm., but gives 
 
 1 A. Weber, Ueber die Augemmtersuckungen in den h'dhern Schulen zu 
 Darmstadt. Referat und Memorial, erstattet der grossherzoge Ministerial = 
 Ahtheilung fur Gestmdheitspflege. Marz, 1881. 
 
 2 The Hygiene of the Eye, Hermann Cohn, Midland Educational Co., 
 Birmingham, England, 1886, p. 206. 
 
 ^ The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, Edmund B. Huey, The 
 Macmillan Co., 1908, p. 412. 
 
2o6 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 his own preference for 60-80 mm. The hews column 
 of the New York Times is 57 mm. wide. The columns 
 of the Outlook are 60 mm. in width; of Scribner's 
 Magazine, the same ; of the Cosmopolitan, 64 mm. ; 
 of McClure's Magazine, 66 mm. ; of the Atlantic 
 Monthly, 59 mm. The average length of line in cer- 
 tain well-known school readers extensively used in 
 New York is as follows : — 
 
 Primer A, part i, 32 mm. 
 
 Primer A, part 2, 45.5 mm. 
 
 Primer B, p. i, 67.5 mm. 
 
 Primer B, p. 38, 63 mm. 
 
 Primer C, 35-110 mm. 
 
 Primer D, 30-65 mm. 
 
 The following quotation from Dearborn ^ shows 
 that many factors in the reading process are related 
 to the length of line, and that the mere ipse dixit of 
 an author is not sufficient as a guide to practice : — 
 
 "The length of the text-lines is mainly important 
 in its effect upon the formation of motor habits. The 
 rate of reading depends in part on the ease with which 
 a regular rhythmical movement is established. The 
 pecuharities of this movement are, as noted, two, — 
 a succession of the same number of pauses per line, 
 and a distribution of the duration of the pauses. . . . 
 
 ' 1 op. cit., p. 131. 
 
THE HYGIENE OF READING 207 
 
 Those lines are best suited to rapid reading which give 
 opportunity for a wide span of attention, but which 
 are not of such length that the peripheral perceptions 
 from the end or beginning of a line are too inexact 
 and confused to be of value in determining the general 
 character of a large part of the line. If the lines are 
 too long, the incidental concurrent impression of words 
 lying in the lines above and below . . . are not in- 
 frequently distracting. . . . Uniformity of length 
 of line is a requisite for the formation of motor habits 
 of reaction." 
 
 On the score of uniformity of length, most of the 
 primers in use offend. In many cases the lines are 
 interrupted by illustrations, so that the little reader 
 is much troubled to follow the devious path of the 
 printed story. In Primer A the length is exceedingly 
 irregular ; in Primer B the same is the case ; in Primer 
 C the lines vary according to the length of the verses; 
 while Primer D has a fairly regular length on any 
 given page, but varies from 30 to 65 mm. in different 
 parts of the book. 
 
 The daily newspaper, having a column of about 
 60 mm., is therefore the model for the length of hne 
 of a school primer. The makers of newspapers have 
 adapted themselves to the reaction of their readers ; 
 
2o8 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 while the pubHshers of books, in the interest of beauty 
 or their own convenience, continue to disregard the 
 standards of hygiene. Of the primers cited above, 
 A's Hues are too short by half ; B's are right ; C's are 
 too irregular ; and D's are too short in the beginning 
 and just right at the end. 
 
 5. Size of Type. — Huey^ quotes with approval 
 the following requirements set down in Shaw's 
 School Hygiene : ^ — 
 
 For the first year the size of type should be at least 
 2.6 mm. and the width of leading 4.5 mm., as shown m 
 in this example : — 
 
 Who has seen the Wind ? 
 
 Neither I nor you. 
 But when the leaves hang trembHng, 
 
 The wind is passing through. 
 
 Who has seen the wind ? 
 
 Neither you nor I ; 
 But when the trees bow down their 
 headsj 
 
 The wind is passing by. 
 
 1 op. cit., p. 416. 
 
 ^School Hygiene, Edward R. Shaw, The Macmillan Co., 1901, p. 178. 
 
THE HYGIENE OF READING 209 
 
 For the second and third years, the letters should 
 not be smaller than 2 mm., with leading of 4 mm. 
 Some of the more carefully made books for the second 
 and third years are printed in letters of this size, as 
 shown in the following example : — 
 
 Where the bee sucks, there suck I ; 
 In the cowslip's bell I lie; 
 There I couch when owls do cry. 
 On the bat's back I do fly- 
 After summer merrily. 
 
 Merrily, merrily, shall I live now. 
 Under the blossom that hangs on the 
 bough ! 
 
 For the fourth year the letters should be at least 
 1.8 mm., with leading 3.6 mm., as follows : — 
 
 Oh, for boyhood's time of June, 
 Crowding years in one brief moon, 
 When all things I heard or saw. 
 Me, their master, waited for. 
 I was rich in flowers and trees, 
 Humming-birds and honey-bees ; 
 For my sport the squirrel played. 
 Plied the snouted mole his spade. 
 
2IO THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 The primers already cited in this chapter have the 
 following sizes of type and leading : — 
 
 Size of Type in Five Primers 
 
 
 Type 
 
 Leading 
 
 
 mm. 
 
 mm. 
 
 Primer A, pt. i . 
 
 3-5 
 
 7 
 
 Primer A, pt. 2 . 
 
 2.5 
 
 5-7 
 
 Primer B . . . 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Primer C . . . 
 
 3-5 
 
 7-5 
 
 Primer D . . . 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 From this table it appears that in size of type and 
 width of spacing these books more than satisfy the 
 minimum requirements of hygiene. But there are 
 many school books in use which fall short of the stand- 
 ards. A popular text-book on grammar, for in- 
 stance, prints most of its reading matter in t3^e 1.55 
 mm. in height, with 2.5 mm. spacing, while many] 
 subordinate paragraphs have i mm. letters and 2! 
 mm. spacing. A well-known book on school hy- 
 giene prints its index in i mm. type, with 1.5 mm. 
 spacing. A certain pedagogical magazine recently] 
 started is printed on calendered paper throughout, 
 withi.5mm. type for the major portionand i mm. type^ 
 for the rest. It is evident that the only way to safe- 
 guard the eyes of children is for boards of education] 
 to exclude from the schools every book that fails to | 
 
THE HYGIENE OF READING 211 
 
 comply with the standards of hygiene. " In future," 
 says Cohn, "I would have all school authorities, 
 with measuring rule in hand, place upon the Index 
 librorum prohibitorum all school books which do not 
 conform to the following measurements : The height 
 of the smallest n must be at least 1.5 mm., the least 
 width between the lines must be 2.5 mm., the least 
 thickness of the n must be .25 mm., the shortest dis- 
 tance between the letters .75 mm., the greatest length 
 of text-line 100 mm., and the number of letters on a 
 line must not exceed 60." ^ 
 
 6. Eye-strain. — An act of vision is a very compli- 
 cated psychological and physiological process. The 
 crystalline lens is an elastic body, and would, if left 
 to itself, assume a shape more nearly spherical than 
 the one it actually has in the normal eye. There is a 
 muscle attached to the margin of the lens called the 
 zonula, which, by contracting, keeps the lens flattened 
 for seeing distant objects. The tension of the zonula 
 is diminished by the ciliary or accommodation muscle. 
 The lens, being elastic, assumes a more spherical form 
 whenever the ciliary muscle contracts, and thus en- 
 ables the eye to view objects that are near. It is 
 evident, then, that in reading and writing the ciliary 
 muscle is kept tense aU the while ; consequently, when 
 
 \0p. cit., p. 206. 
 
212 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 one engages in these exercises for many consecutive 
 hours, the muscle becomes exhausted and we have the 
 condition known as eye-strain. This mechanism of 
 accommodation is the main source of injury to the 
 
 youthful eye. In 
 Fig. lo, a section of 
 the eye is shown 
 with the lens accom- 
 modated for near 
 vision in the upper 
 half and for far 
 vision in the lower 
 half. 
 
 (i) Diseases of the 
 Eye. — Rays of light 
 faUing upon the eye 
 in repose, without any exertion of the accom- 
 modation muscle, are normally refracted so as 
 to be focussed exactly upon the retina. The eye 
 is then said to be emmetropic (emmetros = of the right 
 measure ; ops = the eye). If the diameter of the eye 
 is too short, so that the rays are focussed behind the 
 retina, the case is called hypermetropic or hyperopic 
 (hyper = beyond). If the diameter of the eye is too 
 long, so that the rays are focussed in front of the retina, 
 
 iei Nahblick — *^for near sight** 
 bei Fgmblkk—**/or/ar sight*** 
 
 Fig. lo. 
 From Cohn's The Hygiene of the Eye. 
 
THE HYGIENE OF READING 
 
 213 
 
 then the patient is myopic {muein = to blink). Both 
 these diseases may be caused either by defects of refrac- 
 tion or defects in the shape of the eye. There is a 
 third disease due to imperfect refraction called astig- 
 matism. In this case the focus is on the retina, but 
 is in the form of a line instead of a point. The most 
 important of these troubles, so far as the schools are 
 concerned, is myopia, both because it is a disease in- 
 duced by too close and too long application to school 
 work (possibly insufficient light), and because "a 
 short-sighted eye is a diseased eye ; . . . progressive 
 short sight is in every case ominous of evil for the 
 future; . . . and not unf requently at the age of 50 
 or 60, if not much earlier, the power of sight, either 
 from detachment of the retina, or from hemorrhage, 
 or lastly, from atrophy and degeneration of the 
 yellow spot, is irretrievably lost." ^ 
 
 What is meant by calling myopia a "school dis- 
 ease" is shown by the following table giving the fre- 
 quency of myopia among 10,060 pupils in the several 
 kinds of schools in which they were registered : — 
 
 "5 village schools 1.4 per cent 
 
 20 elementary schools 6.7 per cent 
 
 2 higher schools for girls . . . 7.7 per cent 
 
 ^ Quoted from Bonders by H. Cohn, The Hygiene of ike Eye, p. 49. 
 
214 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 2 middle schools ...... 10.3 per cent 
 
 2 real schools . 19.7 per cent 
 
 2 gymnasia 26.2"^ per cent 
 
 (2) The School Doctor. — In 1908 Gulick and Ayres 
 reported 70 cities in the United States outside of 
 Massachusetts in which medical inspection of schools 
 is provided. In Massachusetts there were at that 
 time 32 cities and 321 towns where such inspection 
 was in operation.^ Practically every nation of 
 Europe has put into operation some form of inspec- 
 tion; and even Chile and the Argentine Republic 
 have laws requiring physicians to visit the schools. 
 The Japanese system of medical inspection extends all 
 over the empire and reaches the most remote rural 
 community. By reason of the general adoption of 
 this beneficent reform and the great improvement in 
 school architecture, the teacher is relieved of some 
 of his responsibility in the matter of school hygiene. 
 In New York, for instance, the doctor systematically 
 examines at least a portion of the children in each 
 school once a year ; and the medical records are en- 
 tered upon the pupil's card, which in case of transfer 
 he carries from school to school. When the doctor 
 
 ^ Cohn, op. cit., p. 57. 
 
 2 Medical Inspection of Schools, Guiick and Ayres, N. Y. Charities 
 Publication Committee, 1908, p. 27. 
 
TFIE HYGIENE OF READING 215 
 
 discovers a defect of vision, the pupil receives an offi- 
 cial notice to his parents ; and the school nurse follows 
 up the case until the child has glasses or such other 
 treatment as may be required. In spite of all these 
 agencies, however, one still may see, in almost any 
 class, myopic children. So it is necessary to keep on 
 urging teachers, as all works on school hygiene do 
 urge, to watch the eyes of their children. Near-sight 
 can easily be detected by merely watching a child 
 while he reads or writes. Other defects will be re- 
 vealed by Snellen's type test, with which every teacher 
 should be familiar. As soon as a difficulty is dis- 
 covered, the parents should be notified ; for delay not 
 only may interfere with a child's progress, but may 
 be dangerous. 
 
 (3) Home-study. — Many teachers overestimate 
 the value of home-study. Herbart said long ago, 
 "The teacher who assigns home-work with a view to 
 saving labor in school miscalculates utterly ; his work 
 will soon have become all the harder." The princi- 
 pal reason for home-study, as I see it, is that the pupil 
 is trained thereby in self-dependence. Home-study 
 also teaches children the virtue of industry and appli- 
 cation. A certain teacher known to the writer as- 
 signed twenty-eight map questions from a well-known 
 
2i6 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 geography for a home lesson. One of the questions 
 was, "What is the most northern point of the 
 European mainland ? " A little girl in the class was 
 puzzled by this question because she had been so 
 poorly instructed that she did not know proximity 
 to the north pole is determined partly by parallels of 
 latitude on the map. She therefore examined all 
 the points near the top of the map, but could not 
 find a name attached to any of the points. She 
 appealed to her mother, and learned for the first time 
 that you must follow lines of latitude in order to an- 
 swer the given question. She then discovered her- 
 self that North Cape is the point referred to. In 
 numberless cases children ruin their eyes and break 
 their little hearts in a vain effort to study unreason- 
 able home lessons. 
 
 All home-work should be forbidden during the 
 first three years of school. Home-work in arith- 
 metic and grammar should be forbidden below the 
 sixth year. The maximum time for home-study 
 should be as follows : fourth and fifth years, half an 
 hour; sixth year, one hour; seventh and eighth years, 
 one and a half hours; high school, two hours. 
 
 7. Literary Style. — It is evident that ease and 
 rapidity of reading are dependent to no small degree 
 
THE HYGIENE OF READING 
 
 217 
 
 upon the choice and arrangement of words. Hence 
 the hygiene of reading is related to hterary style. 
 Scientific writers are among the chief offenders in 
 creating needless difficulties for the reader. They 
 are so much engrossed by their facts and theories 
 that they take no time to cultivate the art of expres- 
 sion. Dr. Minot of Harvard does not overstate the 
 case in the following paragraph: "Do we not all 
 know articles which are bungled in form and weak- 
 ened by prolixity ? Surely the heads of all labora- 
 tories should insist by example and precept that all 
 the workers under their influence write clearly and 
 briefly — for if an author fails to show respect for 
 his own scientific work, how can he expect others to 
 respect it ? . . . Rivarol in his famous prize essay 
 said, 'ce que n'est pas clair, n'est pas Frangais' — but 
 we might say what is not true, is not English. By its 
 wealth of synonyms and its logical construction the 
 English language is preeminently adapted to the exact 
 
 statement of scientific truth Good thinking is the 
 
 blastema of good style, therefore our learning will never 
 appear good if our learned articles are written badly." ^ 
 
 1 Charles Sedgwick Minot, Vice-presidential Address delivered before 
 the Section of Physiology and Experimental Medicine of the American 
 Association for the Advancement of Science, at Minneapolis, December 
 29, 1910. Published in Science, 191 1. 
 
2i8 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 In his essay on "The Philosophy of Style," Her- 
 bert Spencer lays down the principle that the rules 
 of rhetoric are merely so many devires for "econo- 
 mizing the reader's or hearer's attention." "When 
 we condemn writing that is wordy," he says, "or 
 confused, or intricate — when we praise this style as 
 easy, and blame that as fatiguing, we consciously or 
 unconsciously assume this desideratum as our stand- 
 ard of judgment. Regarding language as an apparatus 
 of symbols for the conveyance of thought, we may say 
 that, as in a mechanical apparatus, the more simple 
 and the better arranged its parts, the greater will be 
 the effect produced. In either case, whatever force 
 is absorbed by the machine is deducted from the 
 result. . . . The more time and attention it takes to 
 receive and understand each sentence, the less time 
 and attention can be given to the contained idea ; 
 and the less vividly will that idea be conceived." ^ 
 
 A large percentage of school books are written in 
 an obscure or difficult style that acts as a hindrance 
 to thought rather than an instrument of it. It is 
 well known that in the last two years of our elemen- 
 tary school, children prefer Shakespeare to any 
 
 ^Philosophy of Style, by Herbert Spencer, N. Y., D. Appleton & 
 Co., 1895, P- !!• 
 
THE HYGIENE OF READING 
 
 219 
 
 paraphrase of him. Mathematical problems are 
 frequently enigmas merely because the child does 
 not comprehend the language in which the problems 
 are stated. School histories befuddle the child's 
 brain by an obscure style of writing. The following 
 paragraph is taken from a well-known history 
 written for children from ten to fourteen years of 
 age: "The blockade was now so effectual that the 
 prices of all imported goods in the Confederate States 
 were fabulous. Led by the enormous profits of a 
 successful voyage, foreign merchants were con- 
 stantly seeking to run the gantlet. Their swift 
 steamers, making no smoke, long, narrow, low, and of 
 a mud color, occasionally escaped the vigilance of the 
 Federal squadron." This is a style that an adult 
 might use in addressing mature and well-bred people. 
 But the average pupil of the fifth grade will get very 
 little content from "fabulous prices," "running the 
 gantlet," and "the vigilance of the Federal squadron." 
 Other illustrations of difficult and easy writing 
 will readily occur to the reader. Here are two 
 
 specimens : — 
 
 Difficult 
 
 "The Hollander still displays this naivete in the 
 expression of his feelings, though almost always, too, 
 
220 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 he exhibits a curious, deep reserve, thinking more 
 than he says (though he can be frank enough), as we 
 often discover by the Kghtning illumination of a 
 remark blurted out in passion. See how he expresses 
 his ideal in naming his house to-day, showing exactly 
 how much, chiefly of comfort, it means for him. 
 His are not the regrets of an exile, such as carry our 
 own suburban householder back with some longing to 
 his childhood, when he names one house of a row 
 in a Brixton or Stoke Newington street 'Tiverton,' 
 ' Dunkeld,' ' KiUiecrankie. ' " ' 
 
 Easy 
 
 "And every year he became more beautiful to look 
 at, so that all those who dwelt in the village were 
 filled with wonder, for, while they were swarthy and 
 black-haired, he was white and delicate as sawn 
 ivory, and his curls were like the rings of the daffodil. 
 His lips, also, were like the petals of a red flower, and 
 his eyes were like violets by a river of pure water, 
 and his body like the narcissus of a field where the 
 mower comes not." ^ 
 
 1 Home Life in Holland, by D. S. Meldrum, The Macmillan Co., N. Y., 
 i9ii,p. 13. 
 
 2 The Star Child, by Oscar Wilde, Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Me. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The following authorities are cited or quoted in the text 
 of this volume: — 
 
 1. Arnold, Sarah Louise, Learning to Read, Silver, Bur- 
 dett & Co., 1899. 
 
 2. Bain, Alexander, The Senses and the Intellect, 4th ed. 
 
 3. Baker, Thomas O., The Action Primer, American 
 Book Co. 
 
 4. Bagley, W. C, The Educative Process, The Macmillan 
 Co., 1905. 
 
 5. Barnes, Earl, Studies in Education, 1896, p. 15. 
 
 6. Bryant, Sara Cone, Eow to Tell Stories to Children, 
 Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
 7. Stories to Tell to Children, Houghton, Mifflin 
 
 & Co., 1907, 
 
 8. Burk, Frederic, in Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 6, p. 5, 
 on Physical Basis of Association. 
 
 9. Carpenter, Bakjer and Scott, The Teaching oj English, 
 Longmans, Green, & Co., 1903. 
 
 10. Chubb, Percival, The Teaching of English, The Mac- 
 millan Co., 1909. 
 
222 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 11. Clark, S. H., How to Read Aloud, published by the 
 author, Chicago University, 1897. 
 
 12. How to Teach Reading in the Public Schools, Scott, 
 
 Foresman & Co., Chicago, 1898. 
 
 13. CoHN, Hermann, The Hygiene of the Eye, Midland 
 Educational Co., London and Birmingham, 1886. 
 
 14. CoLViN, S. ^. , The Learning Process,Th&lAsiCrDi\\dji Co., 
 
 1911. 
 
 15. Corson, Hiram, The Aims of Literary Study, The 
 , Macmillan Co., 1895. 
 
 16. Dearborn, Walter F., The Psychology of Reading, The 
 
 Science Press, N. Y., 1906. 
 
 17. Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom, 
 
 Longmans, Green, & Co., 1898. 
 
 18. Dewy, John, The School and Society, University of 
 
 Chicago Press, 1899. 
 
 19. Dodge, Raymond, Visual Perception during Eye Move- 
 ment, Psychological Review, Vol. 7, p. 456. 
 
 20. Fulton and Trueblood, Practical Elements of Elocu- 
 tion, Ginn & Co., Boston. 
 
 21. GuLiCK AND Ayres, Medical Inspection of Schools, N. Y. 
 Charities Publication Committee, 1908. 
 
 22. Hall, G. Stanley, How to Teach Reading, D. C. 
 Heath & Co., 1886. 
 
 23. Hinshelwood, Professor, in Lancet, February 8, 1902, 
 Aphasia. 
 
 24. Hornbye, Horn-Book, London, 1622. 
 
 25. Huey, Edmund B., The Psychology and Pedagogy of 
 
 Reading, The Macmillan Co., 1908. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 223 
 
 26. Huxley, Thomas, Man's Place in Nature. 
 
 27. James, William, The Principles of Psychology, Holt & 
 
 Co., 1893, Vol. I, p. 5S4. 
 
 28. JuDD, Charles H., Genetic Psychology for Teachers, 
 D. Appleton & Co., 1903. 
 
 29. KiRKPATRiCK, E. A., on Children's Reading, in The 
 
 Northwestern Monthly, Dec, 1898, and Jan. and Mar., 
 1899, Lincoln, Neb. 
 
 30. Fundamentals of Child Study, The Macmillan 
 
 Co., 1903. 
 
 31. Ladd and Woodworth, Elements of Physiological Psy- 
 
 chology, Scribner's Sons, 1911. 
 
 32. Ladd, George Trumbull, Elements of Physiological 
 
 Psychology, Scribner's Sons, 1901. 
 
 33. MacEwen, Sir William, in British Medical Journal, 
 
 Vol. 2, 1888, on Aphasia. 
 
 34. McMuRRY, Charles, Special Method in Reading for 
 the Grades, The Macmillan Co., 1908. 
 
 35. Special Method in the Reading of English Classics, 
 
 The Macmillan Co., 1903. 
 
 36. Meldrum, D. S., Home Life in Holland, The Macmillan 
 Co., 1911. 
 
 37. Miller, Hugh, My Schools and Schoolmates. 
 
 38. Milton, John, Tractate on Education. 
 
 39. MiNOT, Charles Sedgwick, Vice-Presidential Address, 
 Science, 191 1. 
 
 40. O'Shea, M. v.. Linguistic Development and Education, 
 The Macmillan Co., 1907. 
 
 41. Reeder, R. R., Historical Development of School 
 
224 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACfflNG READING 
 
 Readers and of Method in Teaching Reading, Columbia 
 University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and 
 Education, Vol. 8, no. 2, The Macmillan Co., 1900. 
 
 42. RiBOT, Th., The Evolution of General Ideas, The Open 
 
 Court Publishing Co., 1899. 
 
 43. Romanes, George J., Mental Evolution in Animals, 
 D. Appleton & Co., 1893. 
 
 44. Shaw, Edward R., School Hygiene, The Macmillan 
 
 Co., 1901. 
 
 45. Shimer, Edgar Dubs, The Progressive Road to Reading, 
 Teachers' Manual, Silver, Burdett & Co., 1909, by Dr. 
 Edgar Dubs Shimer, Dr. William L. Ettinger, and 
 Georgine Bur chill. 
 
 46. Smith, T. S., American Journal of Psychology, July, 
 
 1896. 
 
 47. Smythe, E. Louise, Old Time Stories, Werner & Co., 
 
 Chicago, 1896. 
 
 48. Spencer, Herbert, Philosophy of Style, D. Appleton 
 & Co., N. Y., 1895. 
 
 49. Stebbins, Genevieve, Delsarte System of Expression, 
 N. Y., 1889. 
 
 50. Stout, G. F., Manual of Psychology, Hinds & Noble, 
 N. Y., 1899. 
 
 51. Thomson, W. Hanna, Brain and Personality, Dodd, 
 
 Mead & Co., 1907. 
 
 52. Tracy, Frederick, The Psychology of Childhood, D. C. 
 Heath & Co., 1896. 
 
 53. VosTROVSKY, Clara, Study of Children's Reading Tastes, 
 
 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 6, p. 523. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 225 
 
 54. A Study of Children's Stories in Studies in Edu- 
 cation, by Earl Barnes, 1896, p. 15. 
 
 55. Weber, A., Ueber die Augenuntersuchungen in der 
 hoheren Schulen zu Darmstadt. Referat und Memorial, 
 erstatted der grossherzoge Ministerial-Abtheilung filr 
 Gesundheitspflege, Marz, 1881. 
 
 56. Wharton, William Parker, Experimental Study of 
 Ideational Types, Thesis for Doctorate in Philosophy, 
 New York University, 1911. 
 
 57. WissLER, Clark, Interests of Children in Reading, 
 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 5, p. 523. 
 
 58. Wilde, Oscar, The Star Child, Thomas B. Mosher, Port- 
 land, Me. 
 
 59. Intentions, Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Me., 
 
 1904. 
 
 60. Wyche, Richard Thomas, Some Great Stories and How 
 to Tell Them, Newson & Co., N. Y., 1910. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 1. (a) Describe three kinds of exercises which 
 should be used in teaching children to read before a 
 reading book is placed into their hands. Give a psy- 
 chological reason for each exercise. 
 
 (b) Give, with reasons, specific cautions regarding 
 the use of phonic work in the first half year. 
 
 2. (a) Describe what you regard as a good pho- 
 netic method of teaching reading. Give a reason for 
 each feature of the method described. 
 
 (b) Describe and criticise the reading material 
 found in some first reader now in use. Mention the 
 book. 
 
 3. "The owls were talking to each other. They 
 were talking in their native language and laughing at 
 each other. 
 
 " Hiawatha heard the hooting of the owls and he 
 was afraid. ' What is that ? ' he cried in terror. 
 
 "Nokomis laughed and said, 'That is but the owl 
 and the owlet in the pine trees. They are talking 
 
 226 
 
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 227 
 
 to each other in their native language. The old owl 
 is scolding, and the owlet is laughing at the moon.' " 
 Assuming that the italicized words have not oc- 
 curred previously in the reading of the class, how 
 would you lead children in the second year of school, 
 {a) to pronounce and to recognize these words; 
 Q)) to understand their meaning ? 
 
 4. Describe, in detail, proper methods of correcting 
 these habitual faults in pronunciation : {a) dem for 
 them; (b) wite for white. 
 
 5. {a) Give ten phonetic elements that should be 
 taught early in the first year of school. Give three 
 considerations governing your choice. 
 
 (6) Outline in three steps an exercise on the pho- 
 nogram in. 
 
 6. (a) In a second-year class, what preparation 
 should be made for the reading of the poem printed 
 on page 131 (mention three particulars) ? 
 
 (h) Suggest three aids, aside from repetition, in 
 the memorizing of this song. 
 
 (c) In an eighth-year class, what points with re- 
 gard to the versification of this song may properly 
 be developed? 
 
 7. Give in detail an exercise, suitable for the first 
 year, on the sound "sk," giving in parallel columns, 
 
228 PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 {a) what the teacher is to do, and (6) what the pupils 
 are to do. 
 
 8. It has been proposed that in teaching beginners 
 to read, the teacher should begin by using the fol- 
 lowing sentence : "Three little pigs went for a walk." 
 Criticise this procedure, giving reasons. 
 
 9. {a) State, with reasons, the principles that 
 should guide you in selecting the words to be taught 
 to a class of beginners in reading. 
 
 {h) State, with reasons, your method of teaching 
 these words. 
 
 (c) Name, with reasons, the letters whose sounds 
 you should teach first, and describe your method of 
 teaching these sounds. 
 
 10. {a) Regarding a course of lessons in reading, 
 in one of the early years of the elementary school, 
 briefly indicate, with illustrations, two effective ways 
 of leading pupils to understand the meaning of new 
 words. 
 
 (6) What considerations would guide you in 
 selecting passages to be memorized, and how would 
 you lead pupils to commit to memory such passages ? 
 
 (c) Give four directions, such as might be helpful 
 to a young teacher, for guiding pupils to read with 
 proper expression. 
 
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 229 
 
 (d) State in detail what manual work you deem it 
 profitable to introduce in connection with the study 
 of some specified selection. 
 
 11. Describe in outline a reading lesson in the third 
 or the seventh year of the elementary school, giving 
 reasons for each exercise, and indicating practicable 
 correlations with other subjects. 
 
 12. How may children in a sixth-year grade be 
 taught the meaning of new words? Mention a 
 variety of ways and tell, with reasons, under what 
 circumstances each way may properly be used. 
 Illustrate. 
 
 13. With regard to methods of teaching the mean- 
 ing and use of words in the seventh and eighth years, 
 state under five heads the points that should be 
 brought out in a conference of the teachers of the 
 grades mentioned. Illustrate. 
 
 14. Treating each word separately, tell how you 
 would impress on pupils the spelling of the follow- 
 ing words : separate, business, led, benefited, pronun- 
 ciation. 
 
 15. {a) Describe and illustrate two ways in which 
 a teacher may properly lead the children in grade 3A 
 to understand the meaning of new words. (In illus- 
 trating use two kinds or types of words.) 
 
230 PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING READING 
 
 (b) State in general what words should be selected 
 for such study. 
 
 16. (a) State the principles which should guide a 
 teacher in selecting words for a spelling list. 
 
 (b) How should homonyms be taught? Illus- 
 trate. 
 
 (c) How would you lead children to discriminate 
 between the words hope, expect, suppose? 
 
 17. Show the grade to which each of the following 
 is adapted and the particular purpose that each serves: 
 Grimm's "Fairy Tales"; Arnold's "Sohrab and 
 Rustum" ; Alcott's "Little Women" ; Pyle's "Story 
 of King Arthur and His Knights" ; Ruskin's "King 
 of the Golden River"; Stevenson's "The Wind"; 
 Eggleston's "Stories of Great Americans." 
 
 18. What is the main purpose of (i) oral reading ? 
 (2) silent reading ? 
 
 19. What are the essential characteristics of sup- 
 plementary reading for the primary grades ? 
 
 20. What is the purpose of emphasis ? Give two 
 methods of emphasis. 
 
 21. What relation does a child's experience or 
 environment bear to his ability to read a given 
 selection ? Illustrate by means of some well-known 
 selection. 
 
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 231 
 
 22. Discuss the value of calling on a child to give 
 in his own words the thought of a passage that has 
 just been read. 
 
 23. Mark with proper diacritics: caprice, rough, 
 legal, desert (verb), furlough. 
 
 24. Contrast analytic and synthetic methods of 
 teaching a child to read. Illustrate. 
 
 25. Show in what respects learning to speak and 
 learning to read are alike, and wherein the two are 
 unlike. 
 
 26. Discuss the question of lip movement in read- 
 ing, giving your opinion, with reasons, as to its value 
 or hindrance. 
 
 27. Show the value of dramatization as a school 
 exercise, and point out some of its dangers. 
 
 28. Are diacritical marks desirable or necessary 
 in the beginnings of reading ? Give reasons. 
 
 29. Give an outline of the principal topics properly 
 treated under the head of the hygiene of reading. 
 
 30. What is the educational value of reading as a 
 school subject ? Specify its several functions. 
 
 31. Discuss the relation and relative value of 
 impression and expression in education. 
 
 32. What is the significance of gesture in relation 
 to human speech ? Illustrate. 
 
1 
 
 232 PRINCIPLES OF TEACfflNG READING 
 
 33. Define and give the use of hornbook, sampler, 
 battledore, in connection with reading. 
 
 34. Characterize in detail a good reading lesson in 
 a second-year grade. 
 
 35. Explain a good method of stimulating interest 
 in good but difficult subject-matter in a fourth-year 
 class. 
 
 36. Discuss the value of reading to children in 
 lower and higher grades. 
 
 37. What is the value of story-telling in the pri- 
 mary grades ? Specify some of the qualities of a well- 
 told story. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abell, Adelaide M., 66. 
 Abstract of reading, 194. 
 Accommodation in vision, 212. 
 Adaptations of reading matter, 
 
 . 97- . . 
 Aim, definite, in reading, 140. 
 Alexia, 42. 
 
 Allusions, teaching of, 138. 
 Alphabet, our, 81. 
 Alphabetic method, 115. 
 
 forbidden in Prussia, 117. 
 Amount read, by pupils, 171, 192. 
 
 to pupils, 178. 
 
 by best schools, 184. 
 Analysis, of reading test, 192. 
 
 of words, 78. 
 Analytic method of reading, 118. 
 Aphasias, 40-55. 
 
 motor, 42. 
 Apraxias, 43. 
 Arabs, their gestures, 4. 
 Arnold, Sarah Louise, 83. 
 Association, laws of, 16-20. 
 
 reading a form of, 14. 
 
 voluntary, 20. 
 
 physical basis of, 38. 
 Astigmatism, 213. 
 Asymbolia, 49. 
 
 Babbling stage of language, 5-7. 
 Bagley, W. C, 30. 
 Bain, Alexander, 45. 
 Baker, Thomas O., 71. 
 Barnes, Earl, 87. 
 Basedow, 116. 
 Battledore, 113. 
 Beginnings of reading, 120. 
 a device for, 127. 
 
 Blackboard reading, 203. 
 Blend, the, 83, 121, 126. 
 Books used in reading, by chil- 
 dren, 172. 
 to children, 178. 
 Booth, Edwin, 146. 
 Brain, function, localization of, 
 40. 
 how a word gets recorded on, 
 
 47. 
 Broca's Convolution, 43, 48, 55. 
 Browning, Incident of the 
 
 French Camp, 144. 
 Brumbaugh, Martin G., 82. 
 Bryant, Sara Cone, 163. 
 Buno, 116. 
 Burk, Frederic, 39. 
 
 Calendered paper, 202. 
 Carpenter, Baker, and Scott, 
 
 143, 144- 
 Cattell, Dr. J. McKeen, viii. 
 Chattering stage of language, 8. 
 Children, kind of words used 
 
 by them, 9. 
 number of words used by 
 
 them, II. 
 Chubb, Percival, ' 94, 98, 99, 
 
 104, 134, 140, 141, 150, 164. 
 Ciliary muscle, 211. 
 Clark, S. H., 148, 150. 
 Climax, 154. 
 Cohn, Hermann, 205, 211, 212, 
 
 213, 214. 
 College entrance board, 108. 
 
 requirements, 105. 
 Colvin, S. S., 29, 30. 
 Comenius, 117, 119. 
 
 233 
 
234 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Congruity, 19. 
 
 Content, method of imparting, 
 
 128. 
 Contrast, 154. 
 Corson, Hiram, 145. 
 Criticism of class reading, 154, 
 
 157- 
 
 Dearborn, Walter F., viii, 59-62, 
 
 205-206. 
 Definitions of reading terms, 
 
 120. 
 Delsarte, system of expression, 4. 
 Device for beginners in reading, 
 
 127. 
 Dewey, John, i, 32. 
 Dexter and Garlick, 14, 17. 
 Diacritical marks, 81. 
 Dictionary habit, 195. 
 Diseases of the eye, 212. 
 Doctor, the school, 214. 
 Dodge, Raymond, 61. 
 
 Ear, literature for the, 143. 
 
 Economy, mental, in silent read- 
 ing, 28. 
 
 Education, half-brained, 56. 
 
 Educational Review, viii. 
 
 Ehot, Charles W., 100. 
 
 Emerson, R. W., The Moun- 
 tain and the Squirrel, 131. 
 
 Emmetropic, 212. 
 
 Emotion in reading, 153. 
 
 Emotional stage of language, 2. 
 
 Emphasis, 152. 
 
 Ends of reading, 77. 
 
 Errors, correcting, 126, 154, 157. 
 
 Expression, 141. 
 
 and impression, 129. 
 
 Expressive impulse, i. 
 
 Eye-movements in reading, 60- 
 65- 
 
 Figures of speech, teaching of, 
 138. 
 
 Fiske, Thomas S., 108. 
 Fissure of Rolando, 40. 
 
 of Sylvius, 40. 
 Frenchmen, their gestures, 4. 
 Frequency, in association, 18. 
 Fulton and Trueblood, 148. 
 
 Gesture, importance of, 3. 
 
 Goethe, 31. 
 
 Grammar, figures, and allusions, 
 
 138. 
 Grouping, as an element in 
 
 reading, 151. 
 Gidick and Ayres, 214. 
 
 Hall, G. Stanley, 86, 95-98, 115- 
 116, 130. 
 
 Harris, Benjamin, and the New 
 England Primer, 100. 
 
 Henry VHI, primer, no. 
 
 High school reading, 105, 149. 
 
 Hinshelwood, Professor, 49. 
 
 History of reading, 109, 120. 
 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Cham- 
 bered NautUus, 138. 
 Old Ironsides, 143. 
 
 Home study, 215. 
 
 Horn-book, 113. 
 
 Hornbye's horn-book, 113. 
 
 Huey, Edmund B., 25, 59, 62, 
 66, 67, 68, 205. 
 
 Huxley, Thomas, 13. 
 
 Hypermetropic, 212. 
 
 Ickelsamer, 109, 116. 
 Ideational types, 30. 
 Illustration of the process of 
 learning to read, 21. 
 
 influence of Comenius, 119. 
 
 in relation to hygiene, 204. 
 Imitative impulse, i. 
 Impression and expression, 129. 
 
 total, in reading, 135. 
 Information, reading for, loi. 
 Inspiration, reading for, 102. 
 
INDEX 
 
 23s 
 
 Institutes of Oratory, Quintilian, 
 
 117. 
 Interpretation, as an element in 
 
 reading, 193. 
 Interest in reading, 19, 87, 89, 
 
 92, 93- 
 
 Jacotot, 118. 
 James, William, 15. 
 Judd, Charles H., 64. 
 
 K.'s diary, 6-1 1. 
 Kirkpatrick, E. A., 8, 11, 12, 90, 
 91. 
 
 Ladd and Woodworth, viii, 43, 
 
 48, 49, 54, S5, 56, 58. 
 Language, comprehension pre- 
 cedes use, 6. 
 stages of, 2. 
 visual, 12. 
 Laws of association, 18. 
 Left-and-right-handedness, 53- 
 
 55- 
 Letters recognized in groups, 
 
 62-64. 
 Light, sufficient, in reading, 199. 
 Line, length of, 205. 
 Lip-movers in reading, 34, 35, 
 
 66, 67. 
 Literary style in relation to 
 
 hygiene, 216. 
 Literature for the ear, 143-145. 
 
 reading as, 103. 
 Localization of brain function, 
 
 40. 
 Longfellow, The Arrow and the 
 
 Song, 160. 
 Lucy Gray, 132. 
 Lyrics, how to teach, 130. 
 
 MacDougall, Robert, viii, 35. 
 MacEwen, Sir William, 51, 52. 
 Machines, reading, 119. 
 MaUery, on gesture, 5. 
 
 Material, reading, history of, 
 
 109. 
 Meaning of words, 51, 66-68, 
 
 84. 
 Meldrum, D. S., 220. 
 Memorizing, 159. 
 Mental economy in sUent read- 
 ing, 28. 
 Methods of teaching reading, 
 109-163. 
 
 history of,; 109-120. 
 
 A-B-C, 115. 
 
 phonic, 116. 
 
 word-building, 117. 
 
 write-read, 117. 
 
 analytic, 118. 
 
 imparting content, 128. 
 Miller, Cyrus C, 114. 
 Miller, Hugh, 102. 
 Milton, John, 96, 141. 
 Minot, Charles S., 217. 
 Moimtain, The, and the Squirrel, 
 
 131- 
 
 Muscular movements in read- 
 ing, 59- 
 
 Myopia, a school disease, 213. 
 
 New England Primer, no. 
 
 Orbis Pictus, illustrated school 
 
 book, 119. 
 O'Shea, M. V., 25, 33, 34. 
 
 Paper, tinge and surface, 202. 
 Pestalozzi, 117. 
 Phonetic analysis, 78, 81. 
 
 synthesis, 83. 
 
 reading, 121. 
 
 word, 121. 
 Phonic and phonetic, 1 20. 
 Phonogram defined, 121. 
 Physical basis of association, 
 38. 
 
 of a word, 44. 
 
 of the meaning of words, 51. 
 
236 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Physiology of reading, 38-69, 
 
 73-76. 
 Plato, describes write-read 
 
 method, 117. 
 Play impulse, 2. 
 Poetry, lyric, 130. 
 narrative, 131. 
 Posture in reading, 68. 
 Primary reading, mechanics of, 
 
 77- 
 as literature, 85. 
 lyrics, 130. 
 
 narrative poems, 131. 
 Primer, the New England, no, 
 
 III. 
 Primers, length of line, 206. 
 
 size of tjrpe, 210. 
 Principles of reading, 70-76. 
 Print or script in the beginning, 
 
 80. _ 
 Pronunciation, 81. 
 Psychology of reading, 1-37, 
 
 .70-73. _ 
 PupUs, reading to, 158. 
 
 Quality, quantity, and time, 180. 
 Quantitative study of reading, 
 
 Quintilian, describes write-read 
 method, 117. 
 
 Rapidity in reading, 33. 
 Ratichius, 117. 
 
 Reading teacher, successful, a 
 rare treasure, v. 
 
 psychology of, i. 
 
 signs of, 14, 15. 
 
 a form of association, 14, 16-20. 
 
 illustration of the process, 21- 
 
 silent, 25. 
 
 mental economy in, 28. 
 from printed to spoken word, 
 thence to idea, 30. . 
 
 as self-expression, 32. 
 
 rapidity in, 33. 
 
 lip-movers in, 59. 
 
 muscular movements in, 59. 
 
 eye-movements in, 60-65. 
 
 posture in, 68. 
 
 end of, 77. 
 
 twofold aspect of, 78. 
 
 relation to other studies, 78. 
 
 primary, mechanics of, 77. 
 
 primary, as literature, 85. 
 
 what? 85, 104. 
 
 sex differences in, 88, 90. 
 
 grammar, mechanics of, 99. 
 
 supplementary, 100. 
 
 grammar, as literature, 103. 
 
 for college entrance, 105. 
 
 history of material, 109. 
 
 machines, 119. 
 
 beginnings of, 120, 127. 
 
 content, methods of impart- 
 ing, 128. 
 
 impression and expression, 1 29. 
 
 total impression, 135. 
 
 word study, 136. 
 
 study of figures and allu- 
 sions, 138. 
 
 definite aim in, 140. 
 
 as expression, 141. 
 
 in high school, 149. 
 
 criticism of, 154. 
 
 standard of a good recitation 
 
 in, 155- 
 to pupils, 158, 177, 178. 
 quantitative study of, 165. 
 total amount, 171. 
 relation of quantity, quaUty, 
 
 and time, 181. 
 amount read by best schools, 
 
 184. 
 test of, 191. 
 aloud, 193. 
 
 relative value of, 197. 
 hygiene of, 199-220. 
 Recency in association, 18. 
 
INDEX 
 
 237 
 
 Recognition of speaking vocab- 
 ulary, 77. 
 
 Reeder, R. R., 112, 114. 
 
 Representation of phonetic ele- 
 ments, 81. 
 
 Ribot, Th., s. 
 
 Rochow, 109. 
 
 Romanes, George J., 67. 
 
 Sampler, 114. 
 School doctor, 214. 
 Scribner's Sons, Charles, viii. 
 Script or print in the beginning, 
 
 80. 
 Seguin, 54. 
 Sentences, 151. 
 
 Shakespeare, Where the Bee 
 Sucks, 131. 
 
 Macbeth, 139. 
 
 Hamlet, 145-147. 
 
 reading aloud of, 150. 
 Shaw, Edward R., 208. 
 Shimer, Edgar Dubs, viii, 26, 
 
 30, 31, 32. 
 
 Sight words, defined, 121. 
 principles governing selection 
 
 of, 121. 
 teaching of, 123. 
 
 Silent reading, 25. 
 
 Size of type in primers, 210. 
 
 Smith, T. S., 64. 
 
 Social impulse, i. 
 
 Sounds, principles governing se- 
 lection of, 122, 
 teaching of, 125. 
 
 Spacing and size of tjrpe, 208. 
 
 Speller, Noah Webster's, 112. 
 
 SpeUing, 85. 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, 218. 
 
 Stages of infantile language, 2. 
 
 Standard of a good recitation in 
 reading, 155, 195. 
 
 Stebbins, Genevieve, 4. 
 
 Story-telling, 162. 
 
 Stout, G. F., 46, 47. 
 
 Study, quantitative, of read- 
 ing, 165. 
 
 Style, hterary, in relation to 
 hygiene, 216. 
 
 Subordination in reading, 151. 
 
 Supplementary reading, 100. 
 
 Surface of paper, 202. 
 
 Synthesis of sounds, 83. 
 
 Talking stage of language, 8. 
 Taste, reading to cultivate, 103. 
 Taylor, Sir Henry, on reading 
 
 Shakespeare aloud, 150. 
 Test of reading, 191. 
 
 every pupU, 196. 
 Thomson, WUHam H., 40, 49, 
 
 55, 57- 
 Time in relation to quality and 
 
 quantity, 181. 
 Tinge of paper, 202. 
 Total amount read, 171. 
 
 impression in reading, 135. 
 Tracy, Frederick, 2, 9, 10. 
 Transition in reading, 152. 
 Twofold aspect of reading, 77. 
 Tyler, on gesture, 5. 
 Type, size of, and spacing, 208, 
 
 210. 
 
 Unit of measure, in quantitative 
 study of reading, 166. 
 
 Value, relative, of reading, 197. 
 Visual language, 12', 13. 
 Vividness of impression in asso- 
 ciation, 18. 
 Vocabularies, children's, 9, 10, 
 
 77- 
 Voluntary association, 20. 
 
 Vostrovsky, Clara, 87. 
 
 Vulpius, 39. 
 
 Wallace, Alfred Russell, 2. 
 Ward, Edward G., 82. 
 Weber, A., 205. 
 
238 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Webster, Noah, his speller, 112. 
 Weisze, Christian Felix, no. 
 Wernicke, 42. 
 
 Wharton, William Parker, 30. 
 What to read, 85-97. 
 WUde, Oscar, 145, 220. 
 Wissler, Clark, 89. 
 Word study, 136. 
 Words, kind used by children, 9. 
 number used by children, 11. 
 
 niimber taught first year, 170. 
 
 physical basis of, 44. 
 
 how recorded on the brain, 
 
 47; 
 physical basis of meaning of, 
 
 SI- 
 Wordsworth, We are Seven, 13. 
 
 Lucy Gray, 132. 
 Write-read method, 117. 
 Wyche, Richard Thomas, 164. 
 
 
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