ORAL READING
If the pupil is to enjoy logical and consistent development in
expression, he must be taught along psychological lines. Teachers should
never lose sight of the fact that what is good for one pupil is not
always good for another. It is impossible to set down a set of rules
which will govern alike all pupils. Only that teacher is worthy of the
name who recognizes that every pupil presents more or less a separate
problem.
TEACHER’S FIRST GREAT TASK
The teacher’s first important task is to render the pupil rightly
disposed. Some pupils are at once extremely anxious to be governed by
the wisdom of their teachers, while others are skeptical and must serve
an apprenticeship in imitation. Still others are perverse and must be
coerced. It is the patient and long-suffering teacher whose highest hopes
will be realized.
WHAT IS EXPRESSION?
What is expression? We are told that all life is expression: The sudden
summer shower, the leap of the wild cataract, the springing forth of
early flowers, and the slow motion of the glacier all represent Nature
expressing herself. The musician over the keyboard, the painter at
his easel, the writer at his desk, represent art expressing herself.
This is all true. But what about mankind as a whole, what about the
vast majority of people who are not endowed with genius? Have they no
universal and common mode of expression?
GREATEST EDUCATIONAL VALUE
Here lies the great educational value of oral reading, of expressive
speech. Their appeal should be universal and not confined to a talented
few. It were better that those who have native ability were wholly
neglected and allowed to express themselves in their own way, than that
the vast majority have no training at all. It is the ungifted who should
be aided rather than those who have been especially endowed by Nature.
THE DESIRE TO EXPRESS
The desire to express is common to all humanity from infancy to old
age. The true aim of education should be to “draw out” that which is
within us; in other words, to express ourselves—physically, mentally
and spiritually. The world’s great personalities are those who have
the greatest freedom of expression. They have mastered the power to
reveal their inmost selves. They have profited by the truth that through
exercise we grow. So we should continually aim to free those channels
through which we communicate ourselves to the outside world, in order
that our highest faculties be unshackled and be given perfect freedom.
THE CHANNELS OF EXPRESSION
Let us consider briefly what are the chief avenues or channels of
revealing what we are to others. Our first means is by movements of a
part or all of the body. This we call the Physical Channel. Later in the
development of man the location of sound in the throat was made. Man
noted that when he experienced a certain mood, unconsciously he gave vent
to a corresponding guttural noise or sound. This is called the Sound or
Tone Channel. Lastly, man invented sound symbols—words. That is, certain
vocal sounds represented certain objects and ideas. This we call the Word
Channel.
MERGING OF THE CHANNELS
To sum up, we have three separate ways by which we can express what we
think and feel. It is very important that the pupil, as well as the
teacher, keep this fact in mind. If we are to be natural and successful
in giving out what we really are, these three means must coördinate, must
act harmoniously. That is, the body, or Physical Channel, must parallel
the Word Channel, and the Tone Channel must parallel the Physical and
Word Channel. Each must bear witness to the truth uttered by the other.
When the fullness of each, freighted with human meaning, overflows, there
is a merging of all three. The result is natural and intense expression.
Our supreme purpose is to realize this triune of man’s expressive powers.