ELEMENTARY DEPARTMENT.

First Day's Proceedings.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1877.

The Department of Elementary Schools met in the Auditorium of Liederkranz Hall at 3 P. M. The President, the Hon. HoWARD A. M. HenDERSON, of Kentucky, made some extemporaneous opening remarks. The following abstract of these remarks is taken from the Louisville CourierJournal.

OPENING REMARKS.

The giant oaks that register the chronology of centuries in their gnarled trunks, and toss the tempest triumphantly from their boughs, have their anchorage in roots stuck into the everlasting rocks. These superstructures that are designed to withstand the ravages of time and grow green beneath the moss of ages, have their foundations struck broad and deep. So the splendid growth and edifice of education must strike far beneath the surface and repose upon the elements. It would be the supreme of folly to expend large resources upon frescos and stuccos and carved stone in a building built upon the shifting sands. Equally silly is the labor bestowed upon the mere decorative arts of education to the total neglect of the fundamental principles that should underlie the cultivation of the immortal mind. The mischievous idea is lamentably prevalent that a person of meagre attainments and of but little experience is competent to teach the primary school. Only those of the broadest culture and the most experienced skill should be employed to give original bias and direction to the youthful mind. The teachers of our elementary schools should be deeply versed in the philosophy of mind, and prepared to make up an independent judgment upon the peculiarities of the mental constitution of each pupil. No Procrustean method should be adopted in the elementary schools. Respect for the individuality of pupils should characterize the teachers of elementary schools. Give the twig a wrong inclination, and every year will make more apparent the distortion. Disregard the plumb-line, and the higher the walls of the building climb the more will be seen the blunder of the foundation builder. So, let the teacher of the infant give an erroneous or vicious direction to its mind while in the plastic, formative state, and the farther forward the work of education is extended the more will be seen the injurious effect of wrong instruction in the primary school. The natural inference is that the primary teacher, properly fitted for the work, is entitled to a wage proportionate to the service rendered. Phidias cut his own image into the girdle of his marble

statue of Minerva.

To ret rid of the artist's likeness it would have been necessary to destroy the statue. So the image of the teacher goes into the very structure of the soul of the child, and will remain there. The primary teacher must open the eyes of youth to observe the riches of suggestion which God has flung with a lavish hand around our daily paths. The work of education begins the moment the eye of the child follows wonderingly the candle-light that crosses the angle of its vision. It makes a discovery of itself, and every step forward is a widening of the horizon of the mental vision. To teach the child to observe is principally the work of the elementary, teacher, and consentaneously to furnish it with those principles that will enable it to classify and compare facts, and, finally, to deduce judgments. How false the old method of beginning school instruction by perplexing the child with the arbitrary letters of the alphabet! Nothing should be presented to the eye of the child unless an idea can be associated with the object. Words that have a full, easy meaning should be employed in the earliest stages of education.

The remarks were further extended and illustrated, but, as the address was purely extemporaneous, we can give only this brief abstract, which does injustice to the speaker, if regarded as the full text of his address.

ZALMON RICHARDS, of Washington, D. C., then read the following paper

on.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. The English Language is one of the principal agencies of training, to be used in a properly organized elementary School. While the method of using the English Language in our elementary Schools, as an instrument of training, is very defective, I may say, that the greatest errors in our System of agencies for School training, are to be found in the lowest grades of elementary Schools. The higher grades of Schools, and the professional Schools are conducted upon more natural and philosophical principles, (if we except the Normal Schools) than those of the lower grades. The Normal Schools, generally, make their course of training correspond to the work to be done in the elementary schools; so that as the greatest errors are found in the work of Elementary training, we find a corresponding defect in schools designed for the training of Teachers; as teachers are trained especially for the work they must do. It will be seen that if the views hereafter expressed are correct, there are grave defects in the usual methods of Normal-School training; for there are very few graduates of Normal Schools, or even teachers, properly qualified to do the work necessary to be done to carry out these views. The other agencies of School training, such as Arithmetic, Geography, History, &c., require radical modifications, as well as the usual plans for language training. Industrial training also should be an universal accompaniment, in all our elementary Schools to the other training agencies. Education and labor for the head, the heart, and the hands, should be carried on together. The workshop with proper appliances, and the school-room should be in immediate

proximity, and be so conducted that they may become mutual helpers in elementary training.

I have deemed it necessary to say thus much by way of introduction. Much has been said and written of late about language training. Books have been prepared, with some skill and labor, to meet a demand long felt. Yet I am not aware that the right kind of book has yet been prepared, which exactly meets the demand, and gives satisfaction to experienced teachers, or to the authors themselves. My object now is to try to show what place our language should have in the work of Elementary training, and how it should be used in this work. I think it can be shown that the largest and by far the most important part of Elementary school training consists in mastering our own language. Language is a storehouse of much of the knowledge to be acquired in our schools; and it is also the medium for communicating such knowledge as cannot be acquired by actual experience.

The human voice utters sounds, which either alone or in combination, represent certain ideas, facts, and things. The alphabet, in its various forms and combinations, represents these elementary sounds, which, when properly formed into words to represent specific ideas, are communicated to the mind by the ear. When these elementary sounds are represented by printed or written characters, the word-forms convey the same ideas to the mind, through the eye.

Only a small portion of the knowledge to be acquired by our children can be gained by actual experience. They must depend largely upon the recorded or written experience of others. Almost the first work of the child is to learn the meaning and use of names and words which are used by his parents and friends. His knowledge increases more rapidly as he gains a knowledge of words. Words give him a new start in the race of life. As he cannot bring the world of matter to the test of his own senses he must learn the words which represent the knowledge gained by others. These words have forms to be learned through the eye, as their sounds are learned through the ear. Here we see the beginning and the true nature of elementary training in schools. The child must learn to master the printed and the written words which reveal the mysteries of knowledge and represent the world which is beyond his own observation. Having once mastered these wonderful representatives of thought and knowledge he has received the most important preparation for working his own way through the world without the aid of teacher or school. If these views are correct, the truth of my first proposition is verified, víz: that "the largest, and by far the most important part of elementary school training consists in mastering our own language."

In view of the truth of this proposition, it must be evident to all, that every plan for elementary training, and every branch of school study should be subordinated and used to make the mastery of our language as complete as possible.

Here let me say that while I fully believe in the principles upon which the Kindergarten is based, I think the author of it, as well as his advocates, have made a very great mistake in ignoring language-training, or the reading of word-forms, while they take children through the twenty

gifts; for word-forms can be taught just as readily as geometrical forms; and the former will be used a thousand times to one of the latter.

But perhaps the most difficult question to be settled is, How is language to be used as an instrument of training?

If it has been used at all in our own experience, or in that of our fathers, how was it used? All that some of us can remember about its use is the senseless, dry memorizing of the definitions of old MURRAY, KIRKHAM, or BROWN, and the experimental parsing of "MILTON'S Paradise Lost." More recently some of us have memorized SMITH'S MURRAY, Greene's, WELLS's, and KERL'S, or some one of the thousand and one of what some consider equally good Grammars, and by an almost mechanical process, we may have learned to analyze a few simple and compound sentences. But how many of us are conscious of having increased our own vocabulary of words thereby? or of having learned to use our limited vocabulary with more elegance and force? How many of us are thereby better prepared to use the proper names and terms required to describe the various parts of the house we live in? If we should attempt it we should at once discover our poverty of words. Attempts have been made of late to remedy the defects of old grammars; and some progress has been made; but the real difficulty has not been overcome.

Something more is needed than memorizing the abstract, and often imperfect definitions of grammar, analyzing and parsing sentences, and correcting false syntax, to constitute good language training. We need, and must have a training, that will increase our vocabulary of words, and our power and skill to use them. But the study of English Grammar, and becoming a good grammarian, as generally understood, do not secure these desirable acquisitions.

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Some may say, would you give up the study of English Grammar ?" By no means; but I would use it in its proper place. The abstract rules and definitions of Grammar embody the important principles of language couched in words, whose meaning must be learned before these rules can be understood. The pupil should first be trained to use and understand language before he memorizes and studies the rules which govern language. We never expect to make a good carpenter or mason by requiring the apprentice first to study and understand the theories and rules of architecture and building; but he is put to work at once to learn the use of the necessary tools; and the common names or language of his art, as he progresses in the practice. Then, if he wishes to become a master workman, or a finished architect, he will study the grammar of his art or profession, which embodies its laws and rules.. This is the finishing work of his profession. So should it be with language training. The grammar of our language should be the finishing work in studying it.

But some one may say, that by way of preparation for studying the rules of grammar, our children are taught to read before they study grammar. But here I take issue, and ask, are our children as a general thing, taught to read? How many of them can really read, though they may be able to call words readily? What is reading? Let me venture to give a definition. Reading is the gaining of a correct understanding of written or printed language, clearly and readily, as we glance our eyes over the word

forms. It is vastly more than uttering or pronouncing the words correctly; for a child can be taught to pronounce even a Latin sentence correctly, without understanding a single word of it. This all will admit; and yet we talk about children reading well, when they are neither able to give or to understand the meaning of what they read. The facts are, that they are not taught to read; but to be mere word-repeaters. As a general thing, this is about all that is done, in teaching children to read. But this is not language-training. I admit that no person can, with certainty, pronounce a passage correctly, unless he clearly understands it. The chief merit in good reading consists in having a good understanding of what is read. Let us consult the Good Book-" So they read in the Book of the law of God distinctly; and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading."

This is the way the good old prophet Ezra (8. 8-) and the schoolmasters who were trained in his Normal School, 2700 years ago, taught the people in his day. Where are the teachers of elocutionists in our day who have improved upon the prophet's method of teaching reading and speaking? This may suffice for reading as a training agency. Let me now take a little more practical view of this question of language-training.

The first thing to be done in elementary training is to impress the mind with some idea or thought. This should be done by first presenting to the eye and ear the thing itself, if possible, which will give the idea; or the picture of the thing; or, if the idea is abstract, some suitable illustration.

Take, for example, the word watch, as a word to be understood and read by the child. First, show a watch; and in the best possible way, make him understand the peculiarities and uses of the watch. Or take the picture of a lion, or an elephant, or a steam-engine, and make the child understand the peculiarities and uses of each of these objects, with the picture before him. Take again some color, and make the child learn to distinguish it from any other by comparison; take qualities as good contrasted with bad; or quantity, as much with little; or motion, as swift or slow; or distance, as long or short; high or low; near or far, &c., &c. These examples are sufficient for illustration.

The next step is the language lesson-or the name and word-form which represents each idea. The name watch is properly presented in print or script, upon a chart or blackboard. The child having learned what the word means from having seen the watch and heard it described, should be required to examine the exact form of its name, pronouncing it carefully at the same time, after listening to the teacher. He should be made as familiar with the form of the name of the watch, as with the form of the watch itself; until the sight of the one will readily suggest the other. So do, with each of the other word-forms, by using the picture or some proper illustration, until the sight of the name will readily suggest the thing and the thing will suggest its name. Of course the child will be required to form on slate or paper each of the names as fast as he learns them. The printed name should be presented as soon as possible after gaining the idea it represents.

The form of each name should be so impressed, that the child can