SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS STATEMENT OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES This series of readers has been made with the conviction that no textbooks are quite so important as those that have for their object the training of young people in the use and mastery of their mother tongue. Through the power thus gained they hold the key to the strongholds of the world's treasures. At best, the direct contact through experience with the facts of nature and of human life is very limited in the case of each individual. Important as such direct contact must be, we must still realize that a great proportion of what we need for the purposes of education must come through the stimulus of the printed page. We cannot go to all the countries in the world and find out what sort of peoples live in them, how they live, and what they produce. We cannot measure their territories for ourselves, explore their deserts, climb their mountains, sail their seas, and thus learn about all these things at first hand. We must depend upon the geographer to bring all this knowledge before us in summary form. We can at best read only a few of the original documents and examine a few of the monuments in which the story of the past is enshrined. To do any of this effectively requires a special training impossible for most. We must depend upon the trained historian to put what we need in a simple and concise language. We cannot possibly, by any first-hand experience, know what Elizabeth's England was like, or what our country was like in the days of Washington. All this we are likely, if we know it at all, to learn through our ability to interpret the printed page. This fundamental proposition is illustrated only to make clear the tremendous importance of being well grounded in mastery over our language, both in its spoken and its written forms. A second proposition, accepted nowadays with practical unanimity, is that reading books for the schools should not deal with mere information and its organization as such. That is the place for the books on geography, history, physiology, mathematics, and the various sciences. Information in material for reading exercises is purely incidental and is used to illustrate the issues of life. The material used should appeal strongly to the imaginative powers. It should be literary in its character. The important thing about a nation is the tone of its spiritual life, its point of view on the great problems connected with human existence. Never before has there been more concern for the general welfare, a clearer recognition of the necessity of making human brotherhood more of a fact and less of an airy sentiment. And this increasing characteristic promises untold possibilities for the future. One of the main forces for training in healthiness of mental tone and sanity of outlook is the literature of the world. By wise choice and skillful use we not only secure the needed powers of language mastery but at the same time fill the mind at its most impressionable period with images that are powerful for future good. Hence it has been the aim to make a set of reading books full of the vigor and red blood of life; books that hold up high ideals of thinking and conduct, that cheer and brighten life and give us more faith in our fellow men and in ourselves; books that help us realize that courtesy and heroism have not departed from the earth, but are found even in lowly and unexpected places; above all, books that may serve to point our own high destiny as the responsible citizens of a greater future. SELECTION OF MATERIAL The material used in this Sixth Reader is selected with special regard to its capacity for interesting and helping the boys and girls who are to read it. The selections are of great variety and of good quality; they are chosen from a wide range of authors; texts have been carefully prepared, no liberties being taken that would in any way change an author's meaning, and, finally, the forming of good taste and correct habits of thought has been constantly kept in mind. The old favorites will be found, and much new material has been drawn upon. The pupil's love of animals will find satisfaction in selections like "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," "On Horseback," and "Helvellyn"; his delight in various phases of heroism and the heroic in The Sardinian Drummer Boy," "Song of the Western Men," and "Armageddon"; love of adventure in "Long Tom and the Whale," "Alexander Selkirk," and "Robinson Crusoe Builds a Boat"; delight in generous actions in "The House by the Side of the Road," "I Have a Right," and "The Moonlight Sonata"; interest in legend in "Little John," "The Archery Contest,' "Robin Hood," "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury," and "Heather Ale"; love of country in "Nathan Hale," "Concord 66 Hymn," and "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers"; interest in striking ethical interpretations of life in "Valdemar the Happy," 'Song of the Chattahoochee," "A Psalm of Life," "The Builders," and "To a Waterfowl"; delight in moving eloquence in "The Red Man Eloquent," and "Eulogy on the Dog"; keen curiosity about how things came to be in "The Story of a Stone"; keen sense of humor in "A Modest Wit," "The Bear as a Humorist," and "The Chameleon"; delight in extravagant adventure and "big talk” in "Don Quixote," "Bounding the United States," "The Baron's Cold Day," and "The Owl Critic"; love of good stories in instances as diverse as "M. Seguin's Goat," "The Diverting History of John Gilpin," and "A Quaker Christmas.' These are some of the more marked interests of young readers of this grade, and it would be possible by extending the list to include all the selections in this book under these and a few more such heads. They have all been kept in mind, and the material for the book chosen in the light of these principles and not merely at random. Due regard has of course been had for difficulties of language and thought, and it is confidently believed that the years of experiment resulting in this choice have given an arrangement and an ease of grading that will justify themselves in the actual practice of other teachers. APPARATUS For convenience, the lines of selections have been numbered, thus making it easy to direct the attention to any passage required. At the end of each selection a group of the words most likely to need explanation is given. These are placed in the order in which they are found in the lesson. All terms used in these lists are explained in the general glossary on page 295 et seq. Under the heading "Study," following each lesson, is a brief series of suggestive questions designed to direct the attention to some of the more important features or problems to be considered in mastering the author's meaning. These questions serve as a general assignment for the pupil in preparing his work. GLOSSARY The general glossary (p. 295) gives the correct pronunciation, where necessary, of all the terms listed at the end of each selection. The phonetic equivalents are those used in Webster's New International Dictionary. The definitions given are those which the words have in the context. The object is to put the pupil in possession of what he needs for his purpose with the least expenditure of time and energy on his part. Drill in the work of picking out the one meaning needed from the many often given in the dictionary is important, but it should not be allowed to usurp the more important work of concentrating the mind upon the larger meaning of the selection. Geographical, mythical, historical, and other allusions are explained wherever it is thought that such explanation may be needed. This glossary, therefore, becomes a dictionary and encyclopedia for the purpose of explaining just those difficulties that arise in the study of the selections in this book. No legitimate opportunity should be missed to fill the mind of the reader with the more common illustrations from myth, legend, and story. These are the commonplaces of literary reference, and the general reader is sadly handicapped if he does not recognize them at once. The following chosen at random from the glossary of this volume will give some notion of its helpfulness in this direction: Briareus, Bucephalus, Doolkarnein, Eldorado, Maid Marian and Robin Hood, Medusa, Phoebus, the skeleton in the closet, the Valley of the Shadow. STUDY HINTS The questions and suggestions found under the heading "Study" are to put the pupil to work at once on the definite problems of the lesson. This definiteness in assignment is quite as necessary in a reading lesson as it is in any other subject. Haziness is the bane of the classroom. The clear understanding of what is read is the main object always to be kept in mind. Much work in reading is ineffective because it has no object and leads nowhere. These study hints require the pupils to do specific things. To illustrate by the questions on the first selection in this book, "The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor," some of these questions lead to a close observation of the details of the story: Why did Sindbad take several merchants along with him? Tell the story of the adventure with the Old Man of the Sea. Other questions lead to the stating of the plainer inferences or conclusions that can be drawn: What does the first statement tell you about Sindbad? Do you think Sindbad was justified in calling the Old Man ill-natured? Are you surprised that Sindbad felt the need of resting from his fatigues? A simple "Why?" or "What makes you think so?" will be enough to lead the pupil on to full answers if you find him inclined to answer any question with a mere "Yes" or "No." Some questions lead to larger inferences, connecting what is read with the larger problems of life or literature. In this particular lesson such are the following: In what way was the Old Man like a bad habit? This is a good example of a "cock-and-bull" story: judging from this tale, how would you describe such a story? Where it has seemed proper to do so, direct suggestions are made to start the pupil on the right track. Such is the suggestion (p. 7) that he should call to mind the "swish-sh-sh of the scythe as it is drawn through the grass; or the suggestion (p. 47) on the "capping" of stories; or the hint (p. 259) that the story of the goat is addressed to a friend under circumstances that give the key to its meaning. While these study hints have been kept within the smallest possible compass, great care has been taken to make them serve the purpose of definiteness in the proper preparation of work. In answering these questions it is important that pupils be encouraged, in pointing out their conclusions, to read the specific passages that have led to these conclusions. Where differences of opinion arise this will lead to a rivalry of skill in the interpretation that will often lead to the discovery of important points that would otherwise be passed over. EXPRESSION All intelligent expression is the result of having something to express. The way a person reads orally is a test of his understanding of what he reads. To think the thought clearly and to feel the emotion genuinely is therefore the basis of all good oral reading. The pupil should be encouraged to select and read those passages that seem to say what he agrees with or to express the emotion that he also feels. But it very often happens that the meaning of a passage is vague until one hears it properly read, and the teacher has a large field of usefulness at this point. It is wise on the part of the teacher to do a great deal of reading for and with the pupils. All "discussion" of the meaning is often hopelessly inadequate, while its reading by the teacher will often at once furnish the key. |