Review of "My First School Book."

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terest now so extensively felt on this topic; while much would also be done to aid instructors by suggesting a wider range of thought on their professional employment, and furnishing them, to some extent, with higher qualifications for their important duties.

In stating some of the leading objects which seem to claim the attention of such a society as is proposed; it is by no means desired that any measure should be adopted or pursued with a precipitate zeal, or in any way inconsistently with the high responsibilities under which such a society must lie to the interests and the judgment of the community.

A sketch, merely, has been given of what a society might attempt, in whatever way, and at whatever time, shall seem most advisable. And the ideas which have now been offered, will accomplish their chief objects, if they succeed in suggesting thoughts more adequate to the importance of such an undertaking.

FIRST READING LESSONS.

In

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MY FIRST SCHOOL BOOK, to teach me, with the help of my structor, to Read and Spell words and understand them. A FRIEND OF MINE. Boston: Perkins & Marvin, 1838. pp. 112.

FOR ourselves, we want no reading book or spelling book, nor indeed any book, to put into the hands of very young children. We would prefer-we have, indeed, long preferred-a combination of oral and slate lessons and lessons on objects, that supersedes the necessity of books, for a time. We would indeed have a library of our own at hand, but would use the books, at first, as mere works of reference. We would prepare the lessons on the slate, or teach the child to prepare them for himself. Afterward as he grew older and had made some progress, we would introduce him, very gradually, to books and even to hard study.

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But if first books must be used-as we suppose, taking teachers as they are and with the views they entertain, they must be for many years to come-we would by all means use My First School Book.' It is exactly the thing the world has long wanted, and for which they are deeply indebted to Mr Bumstead, its worthy and ingenious author. We have already commended

the work in general terms; we now proceed to give a more particular description of it.

The first thing which strikes us, on examining the first pages of the little work before us, is the total absence, not only of any long, sage, philosophical introduction, but of any regularly arranged alphabet, or columns of easy syllables, such as have been found, time immemorial, in our best spelling books. The author of My First School Book,' has thus ingeniously exposed the folly of this ancient and almost venerable fashion, in the first paragraph of his preface.

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'A little boy, who had been a long time plodding his dreary way through the alphabet, and had finally reached the columns of three-letter syllables, one morning, (the first snow of winter having fallen during the night,) on rising from his bed and looking out at the window, exclaimed with ecstasy, “Hurrah! there's a sleigh! S-1-a, sleigh! s-l-a, sleigh!!"

"John," said his father, "that doesn't spell sleigh." ""Don't it! What does it spell, sir?"

" "O, I don't know-it don't spell any thing." "Why, father! What is it in my book for?"

"In preparing this little work, it has been the intention to make it strictly a suitable book for children in their first efforts at learning to read and spell; and to have it contain only what is, in some degree at least, intelligible and useful-only that concerning which a child, on making the inquiry, What is it in my book for? would at once receive, from a teacher or parent, a satisfactory answer.

'For this reason, there is here an exclusion of that chaotic mass of fragments of words, which it has been usual to present to the eyes and ears of children in their first exercises. Such lessons, it is believed, are as unnecessary as they are uninteresting. They convey no thought; they rather teach a child not to think.'

The following is the first lesson of My First School Book.' How different from the first page commonly presented to the pupil! How often have the poor pupils been discouraged by the long array of small letters, and capital letters, and double letters, with their unintelligible pronunciation, and arranged in so many long columns, and crowded into the first page of a spelling book. It is like pressing at once upon the eye and mind of the tyro in Arithmetic, all the mysteries of Algebra-its characters, processes, &c. Whereas, the lesson which follows, includes but three words, and these words but ten letters. The words are thus variously and ingeniously transposed; though presented in much larger type, and without capitals.

The second lesson, occupying a page, consists of the same three words, with the words head, nose and eye, variously placed; the third consists of the words jump, quick and lazy, transposed as before; and the fourth of all the nine preceding, with the addition of one, two, three, four, five and six.

The author leaves to the ingenuity of the teacher the manner of using the book, though in his preface, he modestly suggests the following hints to young teachers.

The teacher, after saying a pleasant word or two about the book, turns to the 7th page, and pointing to the word man, says, "Do you see that? It is a word. I can read it. Now hear me read it: man. [Do not name the letters, only the word.] 'There is another word under it. Hear me read that: boy. And there is another: girl. I have read three words-man, boy, girl. I wonder if you can read them too. You may see if you can. Here let the teacher point, while the scholar pronounces. If he tries, and especially if he succeeds, encourage him. A little kind encouragement, in these first steps, has a wonderful effect. Let him read the same words as they are repeated on the same page, which will be enough for the first lesson.

His next may be a review of the first, with such addition as his capacity and interest will warrant. And so with succeeding lessons, keeping in mind the rule, slow and sure; and that repetition must be continued, until perfection is acquired. The scholar may learn the whole fifteen different words on pages 7-10, before any thing is said to him about the letters; or, if the teacher prefers, he may begin with the letters earlier.

All that is insisted upon is, that the learning of the word should precede that of the letters; and for this plain reason, it

is the natural order, and therefore must be incomparably easier than the reverse.

"Throughout the whole book, then, let it be an invariable rule to have the attention of the child first directed to the whole word. LET THE FIRST EXERCISE, WITH EVERY NEW PAGE, BE, THE READING OR PRONOUNCING OF THE WORDS. And never require a scholar to spell a word before he has so far learned it as to be able to read it. Tell him the pronunciation over and over again, if necessary, until he remembers it; but never waste time in requiring him to spell a word in order to find out its pronunciation.*

The first fifteen words contain the whole alphabet in small letter. The capitals need be learned only as they are met with in the course of the book.'

The principle of teaching the child to read words before he knows the names of the letters, is an important principle, but Parkhurst and Gallaudet and many others have

not a new one.

inculcated it.

The following remarks on the methods of teaching spelling, taken, also, from Mr Bumstead's preface, are important; but the principles which they involve are well known.

'There are two ways of spelling-one that is apprehended by the ear, and the other by the eye. The former is the ordinary, and, to a great extent, the exclusive method in primary schools. Whatever advantages it may possess, it is doubtless wanting in practical character. It trains the ear, and not the eye; and therefore is deceptive to those who suppose than an ability to utter the names of the letters of a word, necessarily secures practical spelling, or an ability to place the forms of those letters in proper combination on paper. The latter method, on the contrary, is entirely practical. It is, in fact, the spelling of every-day life. And such is its superiority to the other, it may be safely affirmed, that a dozen words written from memory or dictation on a slate, is a more profitable exercise than the mere vocal spelling of fifty words.

Here it will be objected, that children, at so early an age, cannot write. But this is a mistake. At any rate, they can be taught to make some legible marks in imitation of the printed letter; and this, too, with much pleasure on their part, and little

*Spelling, as commonly practised in schools, is of no assistance whatever in the way of pronunciation, inasmuch as the names of the letters of a word, are, in general, totally different from its elementary sounds. Directing a child who stumbles in pronouncing a word, to spell it in the usual way, is only increasing his embarrassment. If oral spelling consisted, as it should, in uttering the elementary sounds, the case would be different.

trouble on the part of the teacher. Experience has proved that all the various characters of our English Alphabet can be made, on slates, by these young learners. True, they will be, at first, ill-favored, and almost illegible; but encouragement and practice will every day improve them. This method of spelling, therefore, is believed to be indispensable, partially at least, to all those who would be sure of making their scholars good spellers.'

We come now to what is believed to be the most striking peculiarity and the most important improvement of the work. It is the arrangement of the words in natural classes, instead of grouping them together in an arbitrary manner. This is indeed, its leading principle. The first idea of the superiority of this method we owe to the Rev. Mr Gallaudet, of Hartford; and convinced of its excellence, we had long ago begun a work not unlike the one before us. Mr B.'s labors will, however, prevent the necessity of any farther effort on our own part, at least for the present.

The following are the remarks of the author of My First School Book,' on this peculiarity of the work he has prepared.

'Children are delighted with ideas; and in school exercises, if no where else, they are disgusted with their absence. The present selection of words has been made with reference to this fact; and it is hoped that no one can be found which is not, partially at least, intelligible to the young scholar, or capable of being made so. No regard whatever has been paid to length, or to the popular opinion that a word is easy because it is short. This is a great error. A word is not easy to read and spell simply because it is short; nor difficult, because it is long: it is easy or difficult, chiefly, as it expresses an idea easy or difficult of comprehension.

'It will be perceived, that the main point in the arrangement of the columns, has been the sense, and not in any degree the sound. The words are collected in families, according as the objects or actions they represent have a connection with each other. This arrangement is novel, and, it is thought, has the advantage of making columns of words interesting and intelligible.'

Here is a specimen of Mr B.'s families of words. It is his fifth lesson. Thus we find not only the easy monosyllable hand, but next below it the dissyllable finger; and not far from it the difficult word knuckle; all of which, as well as those of the whole lesson-thirty in number-belong to the same family; being obvious parts of the human body.