ercise a task entirely unsuitable at their age-and will also put an end to the absurd practice of allowing pupils to keep up, during the reading exercise, a running criticism upon each other by irritating and aggravating remarks, thus mortifying their more timid companions, and sometimes paying off old grudges; and will then confine their labors mainly to two points—to making the child realize the thought of the sentence to be read, and to showing him, by example and good vocal drill, how to give a pleasant and natural expression to that thought-the best part of the victory will be won."-Superintendent A. P. Stone.

II. "A part of the time saved by judicious management should be given to reading; not to the mere calling of words, nor to premature lessons in elocution, but to plain reading in good books for the sake of the infor mation they contain. It is not creditable to our efforts as educators that so large a proportion of pupils passes from us without having acquired a taste for the reading of good books. If our system confers the ability to read without creating a desire for the right kind of reading, it surely stands in need of reformation. . . . Very little of the arithmetic which children learn at school can be made available in after-life. Their feats of analysis and parsing are never to be repeated in the actual contests of actual life. Nine tenths of what they have learned as geography will pass away as the morning cloud and the early dew. But a taste for good reading will last for life; will be available every day and almost every hour, and will grow by what it feeds on; will so occupy the time of the young as to rob temptation of half its power by stealing more than half its opportunities; and will be a refuge and a solace in adversity."-Superintendent Newell,

III. "We not only want more reading-books, but different ones; not Readers, not fragments of writings, but writings, however brief—a story or a history, a book of travels or a poem-associated as vividly as possible with the author who wrote them, not a mere book-maker who has patched together pieces of them. With such readingbooks, intelligently used, the inability of our children to read at sight and with expression would become less common and less painful. As for grammar, it would almost develop itself from such reading as this. Familiarity with the best thoughts and expressions would lead children, with comparatively little effort, to think and express themselves in good language."-Superintendent Eliot.

IV. "I do not hesitate to declare my conviction that if half the school-time were devoted to reading, solely for the sake of reading; if books were put into the scholars' hands all that while, under wise direction, divested of every shadow of association with text-book work, to be perused with interest and delight inspired by their attractive contents-choice volumes of history, biography, travels, poetry, fiction-there would be a far more profitable disposal of it than marks its lapse in many a schoolroom now. The ordinary reading of the schools is a pointless, starveling performance, so far as language-teaching is concerned."-Superintendent Harrington.

V. "Good reading is an art so difficult that not one in a hundred educated persons is found to possess it to the satisfaction of others, although ninety-nine in a hundred would be offended were they told that they did not know how to read. The essential requisites are, perfect mastery of pronunciation, and the power of seizing instantaneously the sense and spirit of an author."-Marcel.

CHAPTER III.

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING SPELLING, WORD. ANALYSIS, AND DEFINING.

I. SPELLING.

1. MAKE a judicious combination of oral spelling with written exercises. Oral spelling secures correct pronunciation, and awakens a keener interest in pupils; written spelling is the more practical, but is apt to become wearisome if carried on exclusively.

2. Train primary pupils on short lists of the names of common things.

3. Require them to copy at least one paragraph from each reading-lesson.

4. In oral spelling, excite a spirit of emulation by allowing pupils to win their rank in line by "going up" when they spell a word that has been missed.

5. Allow pupils, at least once a week, to "choose sides and have a spelling-match.

6. If a spelling-book is in the hands of your pupils, when you assign a lesson pronounce every word, and require the class to pronounce in concert after you, in order to secure correct pronunciation. Then let each scholar in turn pronounce one word, going over the lesson a second time. Call special attention to words of difficult spelling, and to those containing silent letters. Occasionally call upon some pupil to dictate the spelling-lesson. Require

pupils to study their lessons, both oral and written, by copying the words on their slates; the act of writing will secure some attention to the lesson.

7. If a spelling-book is not used, you must supply, in some measure, the lack of one by grouping words into short lessons and dictating them to your pupils, to be copied into blank-books. There is a great waste of labor in taking up words heterogeneously, instead of by groups. 8. In written exercises, after the papers or slates are corrected, require pupils to rewrite their misspelled words. 9. Do not require pupils to commit to memory and repeat all the words of the spelling-lesson. "How such an absurdity," says Superintendent Philbrick, "could ever enter the head of a sane teacher, it is difficult to conceive."

10. Require pupils to pronounce each word before spelling it.

11. In oral spelling, require pupils to divide words into syllables; but, in long words, do not require the syllables to be pronounced or repronounced.

12. In all grades above the lowest, make out carefully arranged lists of words which pupils are liable to misspell; let the pupils copy the words into blank-books, and study the lessons until they are thoroughly learned.

13. Let pupils exchange papers and correct the spelling in one another's exercises. This of itself is one of the most profitable of spelling-lessons.

14. In oral spelling, require pupils occasionally to define words, and to construct sentences showing the meaning and use of the words.

15. Give early and continued attention to the practical application of a few of the important rules of spelling,

such as doubling the final consonant before -ing and -ed, dropping final e, etc. By this means, pupils will learn to spell correctly a large class of words in current use.

16. The teaching of spelling should be so conducted as to unfold something of the meaning of words, and something of the formation of derivative from primitive words and roots. The exercise then becomes a part of good intellectual training, instead of a blind effort of memory.

17. Correct spelling is a conventional test of accurate scholarship. The teacher should endeavor to secure the best results by stimulating the interest of pupils by the charm of novelty, variety, emulation, and amusement.

II. SPELLING-GAMES.

Let the whole class stand in line. Require pupils to sit down if they fail to give a word or to spell it, or if they repeat a word given before by some other scholar. Continue until all but one are seated.

1. Give and spell the name of some article of food.
2. Give and spell the name of some animal.

3. Give and spell the name of some city.

4. Give and spell the name of some article manufactured of iron; of wood.

5. Give and spell the given name of some boy; of some girl.

Other Topics for Lists.

1. Trees. 3. Countries.

5. Fishes.

2. Rivers. 4. States of the U. S. 6. Birds, etc.

6. Take long words, like incomprehensibility, and let each scholar in the line name, in order, one letter.

7. Take a similar method by letting each pupil spell one syllable.