READING ALOUD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 209, 4 September 1931, Page 6

READING ALOUD.

A PARENT'S PLEA,

(To the Editor.)

I notice' that the Board of Education ij IP much worried as to how it can employ thr HI extra teachers under the Unemployment Board Pt May I suggest that they be employed to take i reading lessons only, as 1 now find that my children rarely read aloud, therefore they havt I little idea as to pronunciation. I was uwet Wm recently by one of mine reading aloud front fit the "Star": "A shocking 'fat-ality'." She i{ I an old pupil of one of our junior high schools i and a great reader (silently). When I inquired ' %■'§ if she hadn't been taught to read, if she had [ ever read aloud, her answer was, "Very fjti dom; you see only the best readers read aloud, t'l I was never near the top of my classes." 'This 1 same thing happened in the Wellington schools, My sister's third child (the two elder are $A always top of their classes) made no progress Mm with her reading. Her mother inquired wliv mm she did not know how to read, and the anewoV £$, was, "Mummy, they never get to me; the Other Hi girls read." In that case the child's father was | chairman of the school committee. The mother f "s interviewed the headmaster, and it was sur- j prising how soon the child learned to read, tpf and, getting a little extra attention, js now' SH quite proud of his term reports. There is no W$ greater pleasure than listening to a good ! reader. We cannot all be musicians and can! fe not always have our instruments with us if W& we were, but we can carry a book. Surely we HB should be taught how to read properly, with - jfj proper care paid to the value of stops. You. H will, I hope, excuse this; it is only that I aih h: urged by the necessity of the matter that j makes me take my pen in hand. The brighter I pupHs get more attention and are more of a I credit to the teachers, but I always maintain fe|j it is the slow pupil who needs teaching, the | bright pupils usually finding things out for f .\ s / themselves. If the Education Board would ¥M so arrange the classes so that each child Vead psl aloud each day, lam sure even the dull child I would improve. Jf it has- enough teachers-t6 PS*?' give attention to composition also, I think in §|§ usefulness. it comes next; as I look back in 1 life I find my greatest need has :been for woldi fell to express my meaning. Indeed, I would Cut |;ISJ out manual training until after the fifteenth I year. There is really no need of haste in pre- I paring children for jobs—there are no jobs for p'M them—but there will always be the ne«d, at 1 ggfk work or at home, for words and how to use lit them. • BACK NUMBER. If