important school,
taught by an experienced and highly-reputable teacher.

The habit of reading without understanding originates mainly in the
circumstance that the books put into the hands of children are to them
uninteresting. The style and matter are often above their comprehension.
It is impossible, for example, for children at an early age to
understand the English Reader, a work which frequently constitutes their
only reading-book (at least in school) when but seven years of age. The
English Reader is an _excellent book_, and would grace the library of
any gentleman. But it requires a better knowledge of language, and more
maturity of mind than is often possessed by children ten years old, to
understand it, and to be interested in its perusal. Hence its use
induces the habit of "pronouncing the words and minding the stops," with
hardly a single successful effort to arrive at the idea of the author.
To this early-formed habit may be traced the prevailing indifference,
and, in some instances, _aversion_ to reading, manifested not only in
childhood, but in after life.

The matter and style of the reading-book should be adapted to the
capacity and taste of the learner. The teacher should see that it is
well understood, and then it can hardly prove uninteresting, or be
otherwise than well read. Children should read less in school than they
ordinarily do, and greater pains should be taken to have them understand
every sentence, and word even, of what they do read. They will thus
become more interested in their reading, and read much more extensively,
not only while young, but in after life, and with incomparably more
profit.

_Fourth._ I have heard several classes in geography bound states and
counties with a considerable degree of accuracy, when none of them could
point to the north, south, east, or west. Indeed, a portion of them were
not aware that these terms relate to the four cardinal points of the
compass. Still more: some of them say that "geography is a description
of the earth," but they do not know as they ever _saw_ the earth. They
have no idea that _they live upon it_. Scholars in grammar frequently
think that the only object of the study is to enable them to recite the
definitions and rules, and to _parse_. They do not look for any
assistance in thinking, speaking, or writing correctly, neither do they
expect any aid therefrom in understanding what they read.

Classes in arithmetic not unfrequently thin