How to teach a child to read so as to create and preserve the right
attitude toward reading is one of the most important problems of the
school. That it has not been solved to the joint satisfaction of theorist
and of practical teacher is evidenced by the continued discussion of the
subject both in speech and in print.
This little primer may not prove to be the last word on primary reading.
It is in my opinion the most valuable word that has yet been spoken.
For here we have several of the most important desiderata for whose
combination all are searching.
The matter is interesting to the persons to whom it is addressed; it is
a series of stories about several little children told in conversational
form. Its thought units are short but sequential, and its vocabulary is
small, each word being presented with interest, and repeated with variety
in its relations. As a natural outgrowth of the acquaintance with old
words comes the power to decipher new words. The phonic lessons are well
graded, and the subject is properly subordinated to thought getting.
The appeal made to the primitive, æsthetic enjoyment of the jingle, with
simple melody and captivating rhythm, as the phonics are presented, is
followed by the gratification of finding them contributory to the ability
to read the classic rimes which follow.
That all these values characterize the book is due to the fact that many
pedagogic virtues are characteristic of its author. Those who have seen
Miss Haliburton teach know that her power to inspire, interest, and
develop her pupils is not only due to the fleeting influence of the much
talked of “teacher’s personality,” but is largely a transferable ability,
due to a gifted woman’s sympathetic insight into the processes of the
child mind, illuminated by the scholar’s knowledge of genetic psychology.
An intimate acquaintance with the results attained by those whom the
author has instructed in her methods, enhances the approval which her
book itself commands.