the correct notion of what reading really is and they must practice thought-getting until it becomes a firmly established habit. Rapidity may come afterwards. E. E. Oberholtzer, in the February, 1915, number of the Elementary School Journal, shows that rapid reading may be developed rather easily if we emphasize it later on. Probably an extensive use of easy reading books throughout the primary grades will produce rapidity. The present practice of having pupils read difficult books in the lower grades is vicious, because it prevents the establishment of proper reading habits.

Just as rapidity must remain a secondary aim, so expression must be duly subordinated to thought-getting. Some teachers emphasize elocutionary effect in order to make the reading sound better, thinking that if it is smooth and animated it is better reading. This is not necessarily true, for some pupils name over the words in beautiful succession without imbibing the sense, while others will stumble along in apparent agony, but will still gain the meaning. To lay stress upon expression in the lower grades is to foster superficiality in reading. It is polish and form without real substance. If thought-getting were held uppermost in mind, then with very little training, good expression would grow as a natural result of thoughtful reading. Some entertain. the belief that correct expression is an aid to thought-getting. It is supposed that by making children utter their reading matter with proper voice inflection, modulation, etc., they will understand better what they are reading, but this is true only to a limited degree. If a teacher tells her pupils how to say a sentence they may understand it better than if they read it in their own way, but who wants the teacher to do the interpreting? The pupils must get the thought for themselves. If they are trained to do this, expression will require less consideration.

This unmerited prominence of expression is due to the fact that so much of the reading in school is oral, causing the formal aspects to be pushed into the foreground of the teacher's attention. What is going into a child's mind when he is reading aloud is not known, but the way in which he renders the text cannot escape notice. Hence, the pupil is bound to receive instruction in the technic of rendition, while the interpretive phase of reading

is apt to be neglected. If the reading were silent, emphasis naturally would be placed on thought-getting, for then the teacher would not be misled by appearances.

It is quite certain that oral reading is overdone, while silent reading occupies an insignificant place in most elementary schools. Oral reading, the kind of reading seldom used out of school, is not to be discarded, but it must surrender its traditional importance to a more substantial and practical reading exercise. Silent reading will not only direct our attention to interpretation, but will afford an opportunity for each and every one in a class to read for himself; oral reading on the other hand is a collective exercise in which only one at a time can recite.

Another secondary aim that frequently overshadows the main purpose of reading is interest in good literature. Certainly we want our children to desire only the good and the beautiful, but we must not be carried away with this idea to such an extent that we shall insist upon the child's reading good literature before he can read at all. When we steep children into rich content at the very beginning we not only prevent independent thought-getting but we do violence to the literature. Literary material for school reading books is desirable, but such material for the beginner is by no means essential. It is better to use material that does not present so many mechanical difficulties. Purely literary material is not child-like in its vocabulary or its sentence structure. Until a pupil acquires the habit of looking for the sense of what he is reading, he must meet only familiar words and phrases. Then, after he has the ability to read, he may read good stories.

Some authors confuse school reading and the study of literature, calling them one and the same thing. This is unfortunate, for it has led to a one-sided training. Reading is getting thought from print; it appeals primarily to the intellect: literary appreciation is getting feeling as well as thought; it appeals primarily to the emotions. Literature is only one of a thousand subjects to which reading may be applied; in fact, in this practical age, reading is used more for the purpose of getting information than for aesthetic enjoyment. To make literature equivalent to reading leads not only to a premature presentation of literary material, causing the teacher to interpret for the pupil and causing the pupil to repeat

rather than to read, but upholds the oral reading exercise with all its disadvantages and crowds out the silent reading exercise, during which children may be taught how to study or how to get information for themselves. All this means that thought-getting is being sacrificed to a secondary aim. If, instead of overdoing the literary aim, real reading were taught, that is, if the ability to gain the sense of printed matter were well developed, then interest in good reading matter would be easily established. Simply by surrounding children with good things to read we develop a taste for the good, provided there is the ability to read at all. But if there is not the power to read, if the essential thing in reading has been omitted, then the chances are that children when they leave school will not care to read anything, either good or bad.

In order to strengthen our primary reading it would be well to have daily exercises in silent reading. Beginners might read simple imperative sentences such as, "Clap your hands; run to the door; point to the sun", etc. By obeying these commands children would show the teacher that they had read with understanding. These sentences might be printed on little cards so that each pupil would have a sentence of his own to read. Questions such as, "Where is your hat?; what is your name?; what does a cat drink?" etc., might be used later in the same manner. As the pupils became more proficient in such work they might read and answer questions about stories which they know or about pictures they see. They might follow printed directions in drawing, manual training, and physical training. Written problems in arithmetic make splendid material for the silent reading lesson. A skillful teacher will be able to devise many different forms of material that will compel children to look for the thought of what they read and at the same time will be helpful in teaching other school subjects. It would seem that work of this kind would be far more educative to the beginner than the regular oral reading lesson.

Foreign Languages in Our Public Schools

T

CHARLES W. SUPER, ATHENS, OHIO.

HE new subjects that are from time to time seeking admission into our educational curriculum render the work of addition, subtraction and curtailment one of constantly increasing difficulty. In the colleges the problem has to some extent been solved on the principle of educational equivalents. Although the range of choice has of late been somewhat restricted, it at no time presented serious difficulty where the financial resources of an institution rendered possible the progressive increase of the teaching force. This is not pos

sible in our public schools; if it were, it would afford no escape from the dilemma for the reason that the elements of certain studies are essential to every kind of education. Besides, patrons are averse to an increase of the length of the school day, or even of the school year. Then too, no method has yet been found for increasing human capacity. In this regard we are no more favorably situated than were the contemporaries of Socrates and Quintillian. Although human activities have been enormously extended, the human psyche has not been able to pass beyond the limits of its inherent qualities. Within the memory of men now living the public schools rarely made provision for the teaching of foreign languages. Latin was gradually introduced and in some. places a little Greek was added. Next German and French were admitted, sometimes as alternates. Quite recently room has been made for Spanish also, and in some localities one other language. Besides these new subjects a number of others have been introduced into the high schools, and the end is not yet. I have long been of the opinion that the polyglot problem could be solved by a method that is both pedagogically sound and also profitable from the standpoint of knowledge. It is the principle of exclusion applied to what is irrelevant or at least non-essential and retaining only that which is of fundamental importance. To assume that

it is possible to lay out a course of study which shall embrace only such subjects as have a direct practical value is to assume what is impossible of achievement. If we set about the task of preparing a curriculum for our public schools and even for our colleges that shall embrace only such subjects as have a practical value, what shall we include and what exclude? Probably not one business man in a hundred has any use for mathematics except the elementary principles of arithmetic and a knowledge of decimals. The business man has no need of algebra, nor of geometry. What are physics and chemistry to him? What is the benefit of literature and history? It would certainly be a great help to every prospective voter if he were familiar with the history of our country, with the principles of representative government and the responsibility of the individual citizen. These subjects do not interest him because he sees no immediate advantage accruing from such knowledge. Probably few of the constructors of the world's great engineering projects knew or cared anything about literature. Most of the builders of the great cathedrals that were erected in the later middle age and which are still the admiration of the world, could not read and fewer still knew how to write. They were none the less architects of supreme ability. It is impossible to draw a line between practical studies and those that many persons would call ornamental, and therefore reject as unnecessary. Every physician would be greatly benefitted by a knowledge of Greek because so many terms in medicine are drawn from that tongue. Albeit, those who possess such knowledge are few in number; they learn the meaning of a term without understanding its structure. The nomenclature of jurisprudence contains many Latin words and phrases; yet most practising lawyers learn their signification as they learn that of any other and without knowing why it has one rather than another. In the affairs of practical life men accumulate a great deal of knowledge as need arises, while the work of the school is almost entirely theoretical or anticipative. A fairly successful business man once told me that he would not or could not learn the multiplication table until he felt the need for it. The distinguished Scottish mathematician, Tait, is said to have once made the remark that he was not sure he could repeat this table. Yet it must have been familiar to him