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Chapter - 02

“Sure, That’s Easy Words Are…?”

The pedagogic world has tended to make much of the great influence of teachers Zacariah Riney and Mentor Graham upon the life of Abraham Lincoln,, Not to be passed over lightly, however, is the work of his intellectually soul-hungry and ambitious mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who, though dead before the boy was ten, had stirred his natural desire to learn into an insatiable appetite to know and to understand. The tutoring which he received from this understanding and competent mother was supplemented only by two short terms of school, yet at the age of eight he could read the Bible with understanding and had become the neighborhood scribe. Thus "it did set everybody a-wonderin' to see how much he knowed."

None can fail to envy this pioneer parent the simplicity of her task. Here was a world where learning was still revered for the sake of knowing, and no one asked: "What am I going to get out of this?" There was as yet no danger of dwarfing junior's personality by teaching him the difference between right and wrong. It was still fashionable for children to obey their parents and respect authority wherever they encountered it. There were no telephones to become critically important at study time: "but we're talking about our homework." There was no television with its "musts." The child's world was not a questionable blend of the real and the unreal. The real world's edge was the farthest side of the dark forest, and the world of imagination was the bright stars set in the still sky. It was an age before "social adjustment" was necessary, yet children developed into normal human beings. Nancy Hanks Lincoln could offer the child no great variety of educational toys and picture books to guard against his becoming disinterested, but with the Bible, a speller, and an English grammar, she fanned the spark—the child's natural desire to learn— and from his early years started him toward "the Ages."

Child and parents have already become important partners in learning before the age for school is reached. There have been thousands and thousands of questions from the child's world of wonder which the parent found time to patiently answer. But the first years of school seem to break down, rather than strengthen this partnership. Both child and parent seem to meet frustration, and in many cases stumble somewhat blindly through the first three or four years of school. The child discovers that school is not exciting after all and that there isn't much to learn, and the parent becomes wholly confused as to exactly what the child is supposed to be doing.

Certainly all children, except the hopelessly dull, begin school with great enthusiasm and excitement. They have been told that they are going to be taught many things, among which are reading and writing; and that they are going to work with real school books—not just story books like the ones read at bedtime.

It is difficult to estimate the damage that can be done, but certainly it is great, during the first years of school. After several months the enthusiasm begins to lag, and the wonder and awe have disappeared from school. It is just something that is—like muddy boots, lost jackets, chicken pox, and sore throat.

Mary's case is typical of many, and should serve as a warning for parents to try to find out exactly what problems are becoming man-size in a child's mind,, At the middle of her fourth grade year, Mary's parents began to catch disturbing elements in Mary's telephone conversations with her friends: "I hate school, don't you?" or some other equally frank variation on the same theme. Although Mary's parents had been somewhat frustrated during the three and one half years in their attempts to find out exactly what Mary was doing in school, or was supposed to be doing, the fact that a child, even before reaching the age of ten, should hate school came as something of a shock. Having done what they thought right and proper, serving on Visitors' Week committees, taking part in P.T.A. projects, and being proud observers of bulletin board displays and Thanksgiving and Christmas plays, Mary's parents began to realize that more was needed. It was evident that something very important was missing from the child's education. The "more" which was needed, as Mary's parents discovered to their great relief, was not something darkly complicated and further frustrating. The obvious, so long overlooked, was missing. In three and one half years of school, Mary had formed no patterns of learning. She had followed the habits of the class from "bell to bell,” and at home she had simply formed no distinctive habits of study.

The patterns and habits which Mary and her parents discovered, though much later than most of them could have been started, changed her whole attitude toward school in general, her teacher, and her parents. The putting into effect of these patterns of learning and habits of incentive is so obvious as to be within the reach of any parent who is willing to spend twenty minutes an evening upon his child's future.

The beginning years of school center chiefly around reading and writing, and since the child's first great source of excitement is concerned with the magic of learning to read, it is here that the parent can find a starting point from which the home can help the teacher build. A question common among most parents, "Where do I start?" should never carry the connotation that the "School has done so little I don't know where to begin." You can be sure that the teacher has ever so patiently dealt with letters and sounds and words—the endless drill and drudgery which most parents could not survive. Now upon this beginning the parent can make the teacher's work meaningful and give the child that most precious of all knowledge—the desire to learn.

A sense of the importance of desiring to learn can be taught from the beginning of school. The twenty-minute bedtime story period now takes on a new emphasis. It becomes more than a story; it is reading. And the minute it becomes reading, it becomes the major part of your child's world of learning. Many patterns make up reading, but the first with which we will concern ourselves is the pattern of words. There are also many good habits to be followed in reading, but we will interest ourselves first with the one most taken for granted and therefore most obviously neglected—seeing words.

Through the preschool years the bedtime reading period has dealt only with a story. Now it begins to deal with what makes the story. If the reader is beginning late, and junior is now in the fourth grade and has outgrown the story time, it makes little difference. A few minutes practice reading from one of his school books, or any book, can serve as a beginning. The chances are good, indeed, that any talk of words will be new to him—they have been "something he had to learn" and have never been related in any way to an exciting story.

Perhaps the best approach to the pattern of words is to tell the child a story about how words were so important to one little boy. Whether he is in the first grade or the fourth, he will probably respond with only a sophisticated, quizzical look or smile—meaning, "You're way gone." If at school the next day he tells his teacher that his father or mother told him a story about words, or even if he only tells a friend on the way to school: "My old man told me the dumbest story about Abraham Lincoln and words, he musta been crazy," you will have started him thinking about words. Whether it was Lincoln or you he thought of as being crazy will matter not at all:

Once upon a time there was a little boy who, just as all other little boys and girls, liked to have stories read to him. He lived in a wilderness far away from towns and stores and libraries, so there was no way for his mother to get new books. Besides, they were very poor people and couldn't have bought many books anyway.

So his mother read the same stories over and over again. The little boy heard them so many times that he knew all the words. His mother tired of the same stories too, so she would stop now and again in reading and ask the little boy to change a word and try to make the story better. One of the stories which she read the little boy many times was about two brothers, named Cain and Abel, and how Cain became angry and destroyed Abel. "When they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." The mother and the little boy would find words to replace rose up: conspired against, blindly hated, moved treacherously. And for slew they would find: murdered, killed, butchered, assassinated. The mother also told the little boy that the big word assassination was used to describe the killing of important people—kings and generals.

The little boy became so excited about finding words that he could find enough words to make a story about almost anything he saw around him. A green tree was also many other colors. So he could tell his mother a story about a green tree in summer, yellow and red in autumn, gray in winter, and black against a moonless sky, or dappled gold and silver in the moonlight.

As this boy grew up he listened to other people talk, and he tried to put their words into language he could understand. He learned that there are many words for feelings and thoughts just as there are many words for things. He learned to put not only his own feelings and thoughts into wisely chosen words, but he learned to put other men's feelings and thoughts into words.

He became a great man, and today some of his letters and speeches are put in books year after year as examples of the beauty and clearness that can be coaxed from words. When his country was in great trouble, he was able to save it by the very choice of the words he used in speaking to the people. When someone rose up against him and slew him, he had become a great man so everybody used the word assassinated. The boy's name was Abraham Lincoln.

A group of eighth grade students were asked to reproduce the following statement about study: "Learning how to study involves putting away the habits and ideas which have made study unpleasant and burdensome, and taking on habits and ideas which make study a really constructive and dedicated force—aimed at the ultimate fulfillment of the talents which separate man from 'the beasts of the field'."

Since the statement had been assigned as memory work, the students had, of course, read it several times, and they showed in their reproductions that they had memorized it. They also showed, and herein lies the tragedy, that more than half of them had never been taught to see words. Here is the way one paper was written, and it is typical of several: "Learning how to study envolves puting away habits and idea that have made studing un-plesent and buigensome and taking on new habits that make study a realy construtive and a great forse aimed at the ultiment fullment of the talants which seperates men from the beasts of the field (no punctuation of any kind).

This and the papers like it are examples of what happens to children who have been allowed to neglect the obvious. The child who made the above mistakes would probably spell all of the words correctly on a spelling test; just as he would be very careful about punctuation on an English test. However, even though he is a bright child, he finds assignments difficult. The simple truth of the matter is, he has never been taught to look for something. What could have been done at home during story time, he must do now alone, exercising infinite patience and extreme self-discipline, for he has now reached the point where he has to concentrate on looking for ideas, ideas which he will be called upon to reproduce in words of his own or apply as experience in thinking.

Somewhere during the years between first and fifth grades this future blindness can be prevented. The approach to word study for the young child should be by four simple steps:

1. See the word.


2. Say the word.


3. Build the word.


4. Feel the word.

Perhaps the major factor for the successful practice of these four steps to seeing, knowing, and understanding words is the use of the imagination in the everyday realm of the obvious. The practice will divide the story or reading time quite naturally into two parts: (1) Reading for study and learning, and (2) Reading for pleasure and excitement. It is significant that these divisions be impressed upon the child, for many children go from drill to drudgery in reading and never truly become aware of its pleasure and excitement. Note the sentences:

"Dick and Jane were unable to climb the green tree. All the boughs were too high for them to reach. So the two went to borrow Mr. Greene's stepladder."

Thanks to the eternal patience and the enduring qualities of the teacher at school, most of the spadework will have been done. The work at home will reassure the child and also make learning a personal thing. That the teacher cannot give each of her twenty-five youngsters individual attention is no fault of hers; nevertheless, it can result in a malignant indifference to learning on the part of the child.

Now it is time to put: that most important factor—use of the imagination on the obvious—to work on Dick and Jane. What is imagination? Imagination is looking with the mind rather than with the eyes. It is not to be confused with daydreaming, for daydreaming is "conjuring up" rather than seeing. Your child will not fully appreciate the difference now, but it is worth coming back to later.

People who see the patterns of words, the patterns of leaves, the patterns of color, are those lucky ones who see with their minds. This is their trade secret—and for a child to develop the ability to handle all patterns of learning, it is a must. The mental picture must be formed. When this is done the hands can manage the mechanics without difficulty—they are only tracing images, they no longer have to create out of utter blindness.

As the child reads about Dick and Jane, potential trouble-makers should be studied carefully. Let him start by seeing the words:

unable, climb, green,
boughs borrow, step, ladder

Across the room there will be a spot for mental pictures, above a picture on the wall, along the top of a door frame, against the back of a chair. Here the child will look away from unable on the page and see unable, for the un is the troublesome spot and therefore is the part to be emphasized. As Un able is seen on the wall or door frame, it is said un able. The thinking is already in process, and the mental picture produces a positive feeling (I am able to spell un able), and the word is built. Climb becomes climB against the back of the chair, and consequently will never be dime on a composition to horrify an eighth grade teacher. Green is always the color, but Mr. Greene may sometimes be Mr. Green. Boughs endangers even the imagination and must be a big BOUGHS. Borrow becomes borRow. Step is stEP, and never steep, for stEEP is two EE's and probably also at least two steps up. And ladder, following the pattern of borRow, becomes LadDer. Then there are the troublesome to's, too's, and two's. To on the wall is to BE—to DO: too becomes too MUCH—too LITTLE, and two is two PEOPLE—2.

The bright child who misSPelled realLY on the eighth test missed these simple practices. It is never too late to do them, but the soONER they are done the more pleAsure they will afFord. It is quite exciting to watch a nine year old child pause briEFLY on a sentence in the book he is reading: "Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson was born in the upper Monongahela country of what was, in 1824, still a part of the state of Virginia." The watcher comments casUalLY that MoNONgaHEla is an Indian name. Three days later, walking along the street, the child is asked: Where was Jackson born? (Right.) How do you spell it? (Monongahela.) Yes, it can be very exciting to see patterns take form which will endure as foundation stones in an ever-growing tower of achievement. Five years from now when your child is asked to write Tutankhamen as the answer to a question on the history examination, he will see TutanKHAMen carved on the wall of a tomb in his imagination, and he will spell the answer correctly. (And from this moment forth the child's parent will be sure of the spelling of Tutankhamen also.)

Perhaps it might be mentioned here that it is seldom necessary for parents to bother themselves with elaborate equipment such as flash cards, charts, work sheets, progress graphs, etc. These are used in the school most efficiently by the teacher who is well trained to get the most out of them. The major equipment needed for help in the home is twenty minutes a day, the patience to dwell upon the simple, and the ability to imagine the obvious. A few books, other than the regular schoolbooks, will be helpful as the child progresses. He will want to mark and underline, and this is usually prohibited in publicly owned textbooks.

SAYING THE WORD follows close upon the heels of seeing the word. Here again, the few profitable minutes devoted to this practice at home will be complementing and giving lasting meaning to the many tiring hours of drill already put in by the teacher at school. As a matter of fact, except for the saying of the word for purposes of correct spelling, the recognition of the vowels—a, e, i, o, u—and the use of the most simple rules for dividing words into syllables, the parent will tread lightly in this direction. The parent will rely on the teacher to direct the child through the myriad side roads of confusion and exceptions to the rule. Note the confusion presented by the following sentence:

1. Correct Spelling: The boy has a pencil.


2. Literal Pronunciation: Thee boy has ay pen-cil.


3. Actual Pronunciation: Thuh boi haz uh pensel.

Before the problems which attend the saying of the word are passed over and left entirely to the teacher, let's at least undertake the six simplest rules for the division of words into syllables. First of all, the child can be told what a syllable is.

A syllable is a part of a word that makes one sound-division of the word. If the child has studied any music, a comparison of a syllable and a musical note will bring out the meaning. It might be well also to introduce the terms mono-syllabic (mono—meaning one, thus, the monosyllable is a one syllable word, and mono-syllabic means one sound); and poly-syllabic (poly—meaning many, thus two sounds or more). In poly-syllabic words one syllable (sound) is emphasized more than others, and that we call accenting the word. The dictionary divides words into syllables and puts an accent mark (un a' ble) over the syllable which is given more sound than the others.

Even the six simplest rules for the division of words into syllables are not conclusive; they have many exceptions:

1. There are as many syllables in a word as there are vowels, except when two vowels are sounded as one or when the final e is silent. Examples: bough, green, were.


2. Where separation into syllables takes place, the division generally comes just before a consonant, but the exceptions are many and important enough to become rules in themselves. Examples: secret, so-Jo, table, re-ward.


3. If the first syllable of a word is accented, a consonant is usually attached to it rather than with the syllable which follows. Examples: pal'-ace, tet'-a-nus, ten'-ure.


4. In many words the syllabic division will separate consonants if they cannot be blended in speaking. Examples: pic-nic, al-fal-fa, sal-vo.


5. When double consonants occur in a word, the syllabic division splits them. Examples: oc-cur, col-lege, sil-ly, syl-la-ble.


6. When parts  (prefixes and suffixes)  are added to words,  they remain  separate  syllables.  Examples:  re-turn, re-turn-ing; form, in-form; large, en-large, large-ly.

A valuable tool to which the child should be introduced during the first years of school is the dictionary. It is advisable to start with a junior edition. The very weight of the good regular editions handicaps the child. In the study of saying the word, the parent is provided with the ideal time to not only introduce the dictionary, but put it into continued used. Its parts should be explained, and an understanding of its value can be made permanent by having the child try to figure out how we would manage words if, suddenly, all the dictionaries were collected and burned. Here again is the use of imagination in the realm of the obvious, a field so productive for the young mind. The New Webster's Elementary is a workable dictionary for use during most or all of elementary school. It has 38,000 words, simplified introductory material for proper use, rules for spelling and punctuation, and much larger print than most dictionaries. It would be a worth-while investment for any parent. Every child likes to own books, and here is a book he will use.

BUILDING THE WORD uses all the patterns of sight and sound carried over from seeing and saying, and the child who has learned the fundamentals of these will build with a satisfactory degree of success. However, there are additional interests and one or two important rules which should be noted.

The distinctive parts of words are important to any understanding of how words are built. These parts are three in number: (1) prefix, (2) root word, also called stem, and (3) suffix.

The prefix is made up of one or more syllables and is attached to the front of a root word to change the meaning. Prefix itself is made up of the prefix, pre— before, and fix—thus the meaning, to fix before. Some of the most used prefixes are: ex, meaning out-export; pre, before; ad, to; de, from; re, back; trans, over; etc.

The root word or stem is the word before either a prefix or a suffix has been added, and is also referred to as the basic word. Many of our words have one basic word as a beginning, and they have come down to us from other languages, such as French, Latin, and Greek. For example, the Latin word manus is the basic word for several words which we use every day. Manus means hand, and from it we get manual, manufacture, manuscript. The Latin word porto means to carry, and is the basic word from which we get export, import, port, portage, porter, portable, portfolio. The study and recognition of basic words can be an exciting game.

The third part in the building of a word is the suffix. Suf—is a prefix which means also, or added; thus the suffix is added on to the word. Some of the most used suffixes are: able, meaning may be; port-able (able to be carried); al, pertaining to; er, one who; ness, state of; ous, full of; less, without; ly, like.

Into the building of words must also go the knowledge of rules for forming plurals, rules for contracting two words in order to make one, and rules for making words show possession. These rules are many and the exceptions to the rules are more than the rules. These things will not all be learned in one year or from one book or teacher. But the approach to them can be learned here and now. Let us put into practice four simple and easy rules which will help us use the words we know and aid us in building new words.

1. Study the words known to see if there is not something about them, which has not been seen before.


2. When learning a new rule, which deals with words, always learn two examples, which show how the rule works.


3. When coming to a strange word try to figure out what it means by studying its connection with other words in the same sentence.


4. Be willing to use the great tool chest and storeroom for words—the dictionary.

FEELING THE WORD is in a real sense the harvest of all the work and growth that has gone before. It is also, in a way, the faith that is put into learning words. It is certainly the most exciting and rewarding practice from the point of view of the parent seeing help at home grow and act. Here the imagination, the mind's eye, really goes to work in the familiar region of the obvious. And as the familiar becomes exciting and enlarges, one can almost see and hear the child's mind grow—its feeling and appreciation for words expand with an almost evident musical vibration.

Feeling is generally explained within the boundaries of comparison and contrast. Feelings are "like something" or "they are more or less than." Then to feel words we see what they are like—what they describe "more or less." The physical feeling of a word grows out of seeing, saying, and building it. But the awe of word power, word scope, and word possibility grow out of what might have once seemed "too simple to waste time on."

One of the most fruitful ways of helping your child to feel words is the simple practice of finding "other words." This can begin when your child is in the first grade and continue through a large part of elementary school. Authoritative sources list the beginning second grader as having a working vocabulary of something less than a hundred words (working vocabulary means being able to read, know the meaning, and write correctly). Statistics also indicate that many students arrive at ninth grade with a working vocabulary of less than six hundred words. The child with such a limiting handicap has simply never become interested—and becoming interested in words results from feeling words.

To illustrate the great practice field afforded the parent, let us return to our First Reader where "Dick and Jane were unable to climb the green tree." With the use of the imagination in the realm of the obvious, a parent might well lay a permanent foundation for feeling words. What can "the green tree" become to the child?

The green tree which Dick and Jane cannot climb is in a city block, but no child really wants to leave it there. It must be moved to the fields where Dick and Jane can run and play. And beyond the fields is the edge of the wood, and a wood is also called a grove. If the wood is thick enough and reaches far enough so that we might easily get lost in it, we usually call it a forest. If it is larger yet and covers hills and valleys and mountains and lakes, we call it a wilderness. If there are no wads or paths and the trees are thick, and if there are strange and dangerous animals lurking everywhere, we call it a jungle.

So you see a tree grows in pictures and feelings, and as you feel new words you make new stories.

Tomorrow your child will want to use forest or jungle. With your help he will see the words. He might even want to search the valleys and mountains, or find some strange creature lurking behind a tree. Be that as it may, one thing you can be sure of—he will not spell forst and jungel on his eighth grade geography examination.

Is a tree always green? No, a tree is really many different colors. Against the sky at night it may be black if there is no moon. If the moon is bright, the tree might be dappled gold and silver.

Dappled is a good word and should be used more. It means spotted with small spots. It has a cousin called mottled which also means spotted, but with larger and more irregular spots. To use the right word in describing a thing, we must first see the thing clearly, then see and feel the right word to stand for it.

In autumn a tree may be red or yellow. Against an evening sky in November a tree may be grey; and some crisp winter morning it may be white with snow.

Here we have felt around the unlimited world of words and pictures. This can be the beginning, which will take your child far beyond the tragic statistic of six hundred working words at the beginning of the ninth grade. When the child reaches about fourth grade level, the practice of feeling the word can be moved from feeling around to feeling within the word. Here an introduction to the actual and implied meaning of words can be made a part of word study. The multiple meanings of many ordinary words are also important.

It is also at about this level that the child should be taught the importance of the fundamental vocabulary for each subject studied in school. In arithmetic it is necessary to have such working words as: addition, fraction, sum, remainder, subtraction. The meaning of digit, and that of arithmetic itself, can prove most helpful to the child. And so with all subjects, the fundamental vocabulary begins with the very simple, the obvious which is sometimes overlooked, and grows as the subject grows.

Perhaps one of the most important things to teach your child about words is an awareness for words we use but really do not know enough about to make them exciting.

Slowly the magic of words becomes a part of the child's thinking. Paradoxically, it seems that if the magic is ignored there is really never any clear understanding of the real. Ask a child who has been concerned with words for six, seven, eight years of school what words are. The answer will probably be something like this: "Sure, that's easy. Words are    words are                     well, they're just              ." And they end up being "things that you spell out" or "letters put together."

What are words? Words are many things. Their magic lies in the strength and power they have when properly chosen and put together. Words are the tools of thinking and expression. They are in themselves meaningless, but as tools of thinking and expression they take on meaning. Words are symbols or signs which stand for ideas, and they have no value except for the picturing of those ideas. Words are names or labels that we put upon things. They are not the thing, they are only the sounds spoken or the marks we put on paper to stand for the things. And certainly we must never forget that each word we use had a miraculous beginning as something new—created out of man's imagination to stand for something as simple as a tree, a stone, a snarling animal, an experience, or a feeling about the stars on a clear night.

Practices in Understanding Words

1. Start with words and the excitement of learning words.


2. Practice seeing words until the skill of enlarging the troublesome spots has become habit.


3. In the practices connected with saying words, the six simple rules for syllabification should be reviewed until examples of each are easily spotted in reading.


4. A knowledge of word parts and basic words should be reviewed at home along with practice in building words.


5. An introduction to the dictionary, and the necessity for constant dictionary use, can best be emphasized by ownership and use at home.


6. Study familiar words for new meanings and new interests.


7. Always learn examples to go with rules.


8. Start the practice of studying words in their relationship to other words to determine their meaning.


9. Have faith in the power of words, and the enthusiasm for words, which grows out of feeling words.


10. Keep a list of important working words (working words are those which can be read, whose meaning is known, and can be written correctly); also, start early to develop the fundamental vocabulary for arithmetic, language, social studies, science, etc.


11. Put each new word to work, so that it quickly becomes a part of the thinking, speaking, and writing vocabulary.


12. Know that words are symbols, signs, labels, tools of thinking and expression, and as such are only as good as the wisdom with which they are used.
    

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