TO THE TEACHER

IN explanation, and defense of the system of instruction in reading, adopted in the Primer and First Reader, and here continued in the Second Reader, to wit, the formation, at the very beginning of the pupil's course, of correct habits of reading, we submit to teachers the following remarks.

If the rules for correct reading, which we find in our Reading Books, are worth any thing, they are worth being applied when they can be made of most utility: they are worth being used by the teacher, to teach correct habits in his pupils, before bad habits have been formed. But instead of this, we find these rules in the more advanced Reading Books only, and there they are almost wholly ineffectual to accomplish any good, because they are brought into use after pupils have already formed bad habits of reading. In fact, the greater part of the pupils in our publie schools leave school before they are sufficiently advanced to get into the classes which use the Reading Books that give any instruction in rhetorical reading; and those who remain longer, and then are drilled in the Rules, make very little progress against the inveteracy of habit. So true is this, that many eminent teachers, and several distinguished compilers of Reading Books, pointedly discard, as positively injurious, the use of any formal rules in teaching reading.

We have taken a different course in these Readers, and one that meets the objectors of both extremes. We begin, at the very outset, in the "Primer," to teach correct reading, by giving numerous examples, in nearly every lesson, of the various kinds of easy and natural questions and answers: thus exercising the pupils in reading, with the proper inflections, the very sentences which they are constantly speaking. We give them no rules here. Children do not speak by rule: why should they learn rules to read by, if they can read correctly by habit, just as they speak? We continue the same system in the "First Reader;" and here we introduce it also in the "Second Reader." Here we first lay down a few general rules of inflection, because we think they will be of service to many teachers; and not because we think it desirable, in many cases, that the pupils should yet learn them. Let the pupils constantly practice reading aright, from the very beginning, just as Nature teaches them to speak aright, and they will need no rules to insure correctness. On the contrary, a continual recurrence to rules is a serious impediment to advancement in reading. Indeed, the only use of a rule in reading is to aid in forming a habit which shall eventually take the place of thinking what the rule is.

The marks in the Primer and early Readers, denoting the inflections to be used, are therefore designed merely to aid in the formation of correct nabits, at a period before bad habits have been formed.

If there are any teachers who think these marks useless, they may discard their suggestions, and then get along as well as they would with other Readers. These marks need not be at all in their way. It is probable, however, that some teachers, and pupils, will be benefited by them; and for the sake of such, other teachers, who may not use them, should be willing to tolerate their presence.

We presume, however, that most teachers will find these marks useful auxiliaries in elocutionary instruction, and will make use of them, as guides for themselves, at least, in the reading which they wish their pupils to imitate. Some may think it best to instruct their pupils in the rules: but it is our opinion that this should be done to a limited extent only, if at all, at this early stage of the pupil's progress.

Our motto, therefore, is, "Teach pupils, at the very beginning, not Rules, but correct HABITS of reading."

We would also, here, very briefly call the reader's attention to the character of the Reading Lessons in the early numbers of the series.

We would say to those who approve (as, doubtless, all do) of imparting instruction to children, and at the same time cultivating their perceptive faculties by familiar "Lessons on Objects"-a system now generally introduced into our best public schools-that they will find the leading principles of this system running throughout the plan of these Primary Readers. We have also given a few separate lessons on the same general subject at the close of this Second Book, one of which we have illustrated by a colored engraving.

With a view to the advantages of the system embraced in these early Readers, superior Illustrative Engravings are made the subjects of probably more than half of the Reading Lessons; and the Lessons themselves abound in questions and remarks which not only give life and variety to the reading, but which also direct the attention of the pupil to the engravings, and teach him to notice their leading characteristics-of expression, figures, positions, actions, supposed sayings, etc., and suggest numerous probabilities which keep the mind of the pupil constantly on the alert. In fine, most of the Lessons in these early numbers of the series are designed to present to the mind of the pupil a moving panorama of a real, busy life, which he can comprehend, and which at the same time will suggest, and call forth, whatever of interest and instruction can be connected with the scenes that thus pass before him. We have kept in view the principle that in childhood it is through the medium of the perceptive faculties that the attention is the most readily awakened, and memory and judgment the most sucessfully cultivated.

We trust we are not over sanguine in the belief-inspired by an experience of more than twelve years in the duties of the school-room-that the pupils who practice the system here laid down will easily and naturally (as opposed to artificially) make good readers—that they will be much interested in the character of the Reading Lessons-and that they will derive a considerable amount of instruction from them also.

INFLECTIONS.

Inflections, in reading, are turns or slides of the voice, either upward or downward. There are two inflections-the Rising Inflection and the Falling Inflection. These, when united in the pronunciation of the same word, are sometimes called the Circumflex, or Wave.

In the Rising Inflection, the voice, beginning at the general pitch at which the preceding part of the sentence was spoken, rises upward, as in the following questions: "Did he act prudently' ?" "Has he come'?" In the first, the voice continues on the general pitch until it has pronounced

'dent-ly'?

the first syllable of the word prudently: Thus, Did he act pru-' The proper reading of the second example may be illustrated thus: Has

In the Falling Inflection, the voice usually begins above the general pitch, and suddenly descends to it, but seldom falls below it. Thus: Has

he

come'?

day',

mor-row1?

he gone to town to

or will he go to

Here the word morrow,

beginning high, ends on the general pitch at which the preceding part of the sentence was read.

The rising inflection is denoted by a downward dash from right to left ('), the falling by a downward dash from left to right (').

Those whose ears are not well trained often mistake the falling for the rising inflection, in cases of short words of one syllable, and for this reason. In the falling inflection, the voice usually rises suddenly above the general pitch to strike the word, and from that point its descending slide, in short words, is scarcely perceived. Thus, in the two examples, "What wilt thou do'?" and "What art thou doing'?" the falling inflection is used in both, although the inexperienced ear might suppose the rising inflection used in the first example. The difference between the rising and the falling inflection in short words, may perhaps be more plainly perceived by using the same words as above, but in questions that require the rising inflection. Thus: "Is this what you do'?" "Is this what you are doing' ?" We think almost any person will perceive that the inflections used in the latter two examples differ from those used in the former two.

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