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children are called into play and new combinations of the previous contents of their minds are secured. Their information concerning processes in nature, such as the effects of the sun's rays and of the wind on the ripening fruits, is enlarged. And in connection with all this fresh, vigorous mental content the written symbols of several of the thought elements and thought combinations are brought out and strengthened.

Thus, in a single brief period, the children, acting in obedience to natural laws, enlarge their store of information and improve the quality of some of the information which they previously possessed. They build up new thought combinations and become acquainted, to some extent at least, with the play of certain natural forces in their environment. The pleasurable affective state maintained throughout the lesson keeps their minds constantly active and in a receptive attitude. Their imaginations as well as their senses are exercised in a healthy manner and trained to act along right lines. They improve their use of oral language, get an excellent exercise in physical culture, calculated to impart strength to their muscles and grace to their bodies, and, what we are chiefly concerned with in this connection, they lay the secure foundations of written language at the very heart of the child's mental life. Day by day, through exercises of this kind, the child acquires a written vocabulary of power which will enable him at pleasure to enlarge and enrich his knowledge of language through the context method of reading.

From simple names and action words the teacher should proceed rapidly to simple action sentences and teach the child to think in written symbols from the beginning, which is a matter of the greatest importance not only for the child's future as an elocutionist, but for his future as a student of books.

In this first stage of the child's acquisition of written language a book is a needless impediment. The holding of a book distracts the child and hampers his movements, but there are graver reasons than this for insisting on blackboard and chart work. Our first task is to imprint on the child's mind the written form of words and sentences, and the writing of the words on the board in the child's presence is an important factor in this process. The teacher's writing holds the child's attention and directs it successively to each point along the line of the forming characters. There is thus made upon the child's brain a deeper impression than could be made where the complete word is looked at in its entirety, as is the case when reading from a printed page. This consideration leads naturally to the fourth rule which we would lay down for the teaching of primary reading:

IV. The script form should be taught before the printed form.

Many additional considerations might be adduced in support of this rule. The primary pathway of all sensory impressions leads to the motor area of the brain. It is true that the sensory-motor pathway leads to action which will secure appropriate adjustment to the source of stimulation, but the nearest to this primitive pathway and inseparably bound up with it is that which leads to imitation. The child in imitating the teacher's writing deepens the impression made on the eye.

When a child has mastered a written vocabulary of one hundred and fifty to two hundred words, the transition to the printed form may be secured through the use of charts. We are not, however, in favor of the stiff and rigid chart. The teacher should make her own charts with the same freedom that she writes her sentences on the blackboard. A stencil set, which may be obtained at

any printer's supply company for a couple of dollars and a few cents worth of cardboard cut into strips two or three inches wide and a couple of feet long is all that is needed. The sentences that the children have learned to recognize in the script form should be printed on these strips and work similar to that employed with the scriptform repeated. A comparison between the two forms will lend further help. A good deal of interest may be maintained for the children by doing this printing in their presence. The making of the sentences by the children themselves, by putting together blocks or individual letters printed on cardboard squares, sometimes proves serviceable in this final stage of preparation for the use of a book.

The fifth rule for elementary reading might be formulated as follows:

V. The child should not be allowed to read while his eye rests upon the word until the words have grown so familiar as to be recognized without effort.

In the exercises outlined above no mention was made of vocalizing the utterances which the child learned to recognize. The reasons for this omission will be found in the fifth rule. Correct vocalization is a difficult task and for its adequate performance it is necessary that the focus of corticle energy rest upon the vocal centre. When, however, the child must make an effort to recognize the word, high nerve tension is required in the visual area. When the child attempts to read under conditions which demand simultaneously high tension in these two remote centers of the brain, the result is the drawling reading that so frequently characterizes the child's first efforts.

In the method which we are here advocating the child first acts out the sentence written on the board, after which he copies it with his crayon or pencil, and only

when he has proved himself thoroughly familiar with the utterance and its meaning is he allowed to translate it into speech. In this translation he should stand with his back to the blackboard and speak from his memory of what was written. In like manner, in reading sentences from the chart, or from his text-book, the child should be taught to look away from the book before pronouncing the sentence. This method of reading should be maintained throughout the first and the early part of the second year. In individual cases it might be continued. with profit for a much longer period.

We need scarcely add to this brief sketch the further suggestion that the vocabulary developed in this preliminary period should be chosen from the first part of the first book to be put into the child's hands; and futhermore that the first two or three stories in the book should not contain a single unkown word. If this suggestion is heeded, the child will have time to grow accustomed to the holding of his book and he will have learned to believe is his own power of reading before he meets his first difficulty and the difficulty will thus be more than half overcome in advance.

CURRENT EVENTS

Four new Catholic high schools, two for boys and two for girls, were opened this fall in the city of St. Louis. They are free schools, centrally located, and under the control of a board of directors. The plans for their establishment were made public in connection with a pro-synodal meeting held last June, at which Archbishop Glennon presided. Rev. A. V. Garthoeffner, Diocesan Superintendent of Schools, in explaining the project, has said:

"Our ideal, of course, will be separate, independent buildings, but at present we must content ourselves in establishing these high schools in some centrally located buildings until we have funds which will enable us to erect suitable public buildings. Beginning, we hope, in September, one high school for girls will be conducted in St. Teresa's School, Grand Avenue and North Market Street, and will be under the charge of the Sisters of St. Joseph. The other girls' school will be in St. Alphonsus' School, Grand and Cook Avenues, and will be under the charge of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. One of the boys' high schools will be at St. Peter and Paul's, Eighth Street and Allen Avenue. It will supersede the present high school of that parish, which has been a pay institution, and will be taught by the Brothers of Mary. The other boys' high school will be on the north side, in some parish that has not been decided on, and will be in charge of the Christian Brothers.

"The high schools as we plan them now will be known as high school centers. They will not be parish institutions and will not be controlled by the pastor of the parish where located, but by a board of directors. To show that they are diocesan institutions and not parish institutions, some popular name equally applicable to the whole diocese will be applied to each. Probably these names will be the names of four former bishops and archbishops of St. Louis-Rosati, Kenrick, Ryan and Kain. These schools will be supported by the contributions of the Catholic people. It shall be our endeavor to

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