The teaching of high school English by New Jersey. Dept. of public instruction

Author:New Jersey. Dept. of public instruction. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: English language
Publisher: Union Hill, N.J., Dispatch printing company
Published: 1914-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

example and precept how to read, and (3) pupils must have studied the selection in order to be able to criticise the rendering.

Professor Hiram Corson suggests in his book The Voice and Spiritual Culture, that examinations in literature, particularly poetry, should be tests in appreciative reading rather than questions on the details of a poem. Examinations as to facts only are not tests of the pupil's literary capacity or of his susceptibility to the poem as a poem. Schools may gain considerable pleasure and profit in the employment from time to time of a professional reader, whose interpretation of literary masterpieces will supplement and reinforce the class work of the regular English teacher. If necessary, several schools may combine to share the expense.

Talking about a selection. The simple question and answer method is as good as it is ancient, provided the questions are asked not for the purpose of exposing ignorance but to stimulate thought and to induce the pupils to exercise judgment and taste. Questions and answers may gradually give place, as the course progresses, to free, informal discussion. The teacher, retiring by degrees, in the last year becomes little more than a listener, directing without seeming to do so, the class assuming somewhat the nature of a club. The advantages of this method are obvious. Sentimentality, the bane of English study, will not flourish under it. The pupils themselves determine what is within range. Through general cooperation, attention being focussed on the same point, and free expression being given to ideas, more is brought to light than by a dialog between teacher and pupil. Above all, experience proves that through general discussion interest is created. The interchange of views may have to do with the truth of the selection or with its art; it may involve a comparison of two classics; it may at times take the form of a debate, or an oral or written report submitted by some member of the class; or sometimes there may be the presentation of a formal class program, occupying an entire recitation period.

Teachers must constantly be on their guard lest a recitation of this type degenerate into an aimless, rambling and disconnected discussion, which may be interesting, but which does not crystallize as a definite conclusion in the mind of the pupil. To

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