Teaching the language-arts by Hinsdale Burke A

Author:Hinsdale, Burke A. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: [n.p.]
Published: 1896-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

TEACHING READING AS THOUGHT. 99

that demands fuller treatment, viz., definitions. Meanings of words are the keys to the printed page. Still, the study of meanings is not just the same thing as the study of definitions. It is true, paradoxical as it may appear, that a reader may grasp the thought of a passage as a whole when he can not define all the words one by one, or does not even understand them all; it is equally true that he may define and understand the words one by one and fail to grasp the whole thought. The mind may take either one of two views, both of which are harmful when carried too far : it may overlook small points in the general drift or substance of the passage, or it may be so intent on small points that it fails altogether to grasp the drift or substance.

A definition does not add to one's real knowledge unless it connects itself with something that he already knows. It must go back to some real or vital element in his mind. The growth of knowledge is a process of grafting a new fact or new idea into an old one; * the scion draws its sap, life, and growth from the stock in which it is set; and to bring a fact or an idea to a mind having no kindred fact or idea is no less futile than it would be to set a graft in a branch of a dead tree.

Further, a definition consists of two parts—the generic part and the characteristic, specific, or differencing part. Thus, a " map is a picture " (the generic part) " of the whole or a part of the earth's surface" (the characteristic). A good definition always refers the object defined to its genus, and then points out wherein it differs from other objects or species belonging to the same genus. We must have some idea of both of these parts in order to learn anything. When you tell a child that a " calabash

* " Heceive with meekness the engrafted word " (James i, 21).

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