A New Discovery of the Old Art of Teaching School, Chapter 1
CHAP. I.
How to help Children that are imperfect in reading Engliſh, when they are brought to the Grammar-Schoole; and how to prepare them for more eaſie entrance upon Latine.
THE want of good Teachers of Engliſh in moſt places where Grammar-Schooles are erected, cauſeth that many Children are brought thither to learn the Latine Tongue, before they can read well. And this chiefly, to prevent their loſſe of time with thoſe that can teach them no further.
Now ſuch Scholars for the moſt part become the greateſt diſgrace to the Maſter of all the reſt, partly becauſe indiſcreet and illiterate parents (I wil not ſay ſervants) that can ſcarcely read Engliſh themſelves, become too ſevere judges of his work, and partly becauſe he ſeem's to ſome to undervalue himſelf by admiting Petties into his Schoole. But for the toyl and trouble that he hath in teaching ſuch, I rather ſeek how to remedie it, then go about in words to expreſſe it.
To help therefore that defect of reading Engliſh aright, you may take this, as the moſt uſeful courſe.
1. Let them read a Chapter every morning, and every noon in the New-Teſtament, and at ten and four a clock, a piece of the Accidents, which will require (at leaſt) a quarter of a year to be read over, in caſe the children be very imperfect, but in caſe they be any whit ready, it may be gone over in ſix weeks time.
2. To exerciſe their ſlender memories at their firſt coming to Schoole, and to find them ſome little task over-night (to which they ſhould be inured at the firſt, that they may not take it more hardly afterwards) let them commit to memory ſome few ſtaves of ſuch Pſalms in Meeter, as you in your diſcretion ſhall think beſt to ſute with their ſhallow apprehenſions: Pſalm. 1. 4. 12. 15. 19. 25. 34. 67. 100. 103, 104 119. are excellent for this purpoſe.
That they may be more perfect in their leſſons before they come to ſay;
1. It were good, if you did now and then read a piece for their imitation, obſerving the juſt and full pronounciation of each ſyllable, and making pauſes as they come.
2. But eſpecially as they ſit in their form, ſee that every one after another read the Leſſon twice or thrice over (the higheſt, becauſe the moſt able beginning to read firſt) and cauſe that every one attend diligently to what is read, looking conſtantly upon his book, and let them have liberty (who can ſooneſt) to correct him that readeth any word amiſſe, and to note it as his miſtake. But in this a care muſt be had that they make no noiſe nor diſturbance to the reſt of the Schoole.
3. When they come to ſay, let every one in that order you ſhall appoint (beginning either with the higheſt or loweſt, or otherwiſe) read the whole Leſſon, or a piece of it, as the time will beſt permit you to hear them, and when the leſſon is gone often enough over, you may propound a familiar and ſhort queſtion or two out of it, thereby to make ſomewhat of its meaning ſtick in their memories, and diſmiſſe them to their places to ask one another the like.
But becauſe the Accidents as it is now Printed (eſpecially that part of it which concerneth the conjugateing of verbs) is too full of difficult Abbreviations for the moſt Children to read, or ſome Maſters (that undertake it) to teach; I have found a great advantage and eaſe by making uſe of the examination of the Accidents, before I put them to read the Accidents it ſelf, eſpecially with ſome more dull-witted boyes, that I could not otherwiſe faſten upon; and the way I uſed, it was this: I cauſed,
1. That Children ſhould read over onelyonly the firſt part of it, which concerneth the Introduction of the eight parts of Speech, by taking ſo much at a time, as they could well be able to read, and belonged to one or more particular heads of Grammar. Thus in the firſt going it over, I made them acquainted with the uſual terms of Grammar-Art, ſo as to be able (at leaſt) to turn to a Noun, Pronoune, Verb, &c. and to what belong to them, as, to the Numbers, Caſes, Perſons, Moods, &c. and to tell how many there are of each.
And in the ſecond reading it over, I ta…ght them to take notice what every part of ſpeech is, and how it differs from others, and what things belong to every one of them. And this I did by Engliſh examples, which beſt help to inſtruct their underſtandings in the meaning of what they read, and confirm their memories to keep it. Ex. gr. having ſhewed them in their Book, that a Noun is the name of a thing, and that it is ſubſtantive, or Adjective, and hath Numbers, Caſes, Genders, Declenſions, and Degrees of Compariſon; I inſtance ſeveral words, as, a horſe, of men, ſweet honey, with ſweeter words, and let the Children who can readilieſt, tell me what belong to them. This is (as Mr. Woodward very well expreſſeth it in his Light to Grammar, chap. 2. To Teach a Child to carry a Torch or Lanthorn in his hand, that thereby the underſtanding may do its office, and put to memory to do hers; to ſlip into a Childes underſtanding before he be aware, ſo as he ſhall have done his task, before he ſhall ſuſpect that any was impoſed; he ſhall do his work playing, and play working; he ſhall ſeem idle and think he is in ſport, when he is indeed ſeriouſly and well employed. This is done (ſaith he) by Praecognition, for it convey's a light into the underſtanding, which the childe hath lighted at his own candle.
Now foraſmuch as the way of working hereby is, when the inward ſenſes of the Childe are inſtructed by the outward, and the more help one hath of the outward, the ſurer and firmer the inſtruction is within; I cannot but here give notice of Mr. Comm…nius's Orbis Pictus, as a moſt rare deviſe for Teaching of a Childe at once to know things and words by pictures, which may alſo ſerve for the more perfect and pleaſant reading of the Engliſh and Latine Tongues, and entering, a childe upon his Accidents; if the dearneſſe of the book (by reaſon of the braſſe cuts in it) did not make it too hard to come by.
But where the book may be readily had (as who would not beſtow four or five ſhillings more then ordinary to profit and pleaſe a Son?) I would adviſe that a child ſhould bring it with him at his firſt coming to a Grammar-Schoole, and be employed in it together with his Accidents, till he can write a good legible hand, and then a Maſter may adventure to ground him well in Orthography, and Etymologie, by uſing that Book according to the directions already given in the Preface before it, and cauſing him every day to write a Chapter of it in Engliſh and Latine.
He that would be further inſtructed how by teaching Engliſh more Grammatically, to prepare his Scholars for Latine, let him conſult Mr. Pool's Engliſh Accidents, and Mr. Wharton's Engliſh Grammar, as the beſt books that I know at preſent, for that purpoſe.