The Haliburton Primer

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 isproperly 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.