The Scrivener: An Agreeable Recreation?
"NOW A FEW YEARS INTO THE 21ST CENTURY, WE ARE PONDERING THE FUTURE OF THE PRINTED BOOK AND THE USES OF THE ELECTRONIC BOOK, AS WELL AS THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION AND THE FUTURE OF OUR SCHOOLS. I HAVE JUST BEEN RE-READING THE INTRODUCTION AND PREFACE TO A LITTLE BOOK PUBLISHED IN 1864, SELECT ANECDOTES: FROM VARIOUS SOURCES COLLECTED BY J.S.LAURIE. GIVEN THE CONDESCENDING STYLE OF THE WRITER, 150 YEARS AGO, WE MIGHT PAUSE TO CONSIDER SOME OF THE POINTS HE RAISES. AT TIMES, THEY SEEM ALMOST TO FORESHADOW THE 'BATHE A CHILD IN WORDS' DEBATE WHICH DIVIDED AUSTRALIAN EDUCATIONAL SPECIALISTS IN THE 1970S. I WONDER IF IT IS VALID TO ASK IF LEARNING TO READ BY USING E-BOOKS IS A BETTER METHOD THAN 'DRAGGING' CHILDREN THROUGH AN 'elaborate, artificial, and ambitious course of lessons'?'' muses Brian Barratt.
INTRODUCTION
THE object of the 'ENTERTAINING LIBRARY' is to provide the young and, generally speaking, the less educated portion of the community with books which they will find readable.
Many similar projects have been started, and have failed. The Proprietor of the present 'LIBRARY' believes that those failures are to be ascribed to a fundamental deficiency which, with proper attention and care, may be fully supplied.
In undertakings of this kind too little allowance has been made for what may almost be termed the repulsiveness of a book to the untutored mind. Children freed from irksome tasks, and working-men wearied with a hard day's toil, cannot possibly be induced to read until they find out what a wealth of entertainment is concealed under the hard, ungraceful forms of typography. Nothing appears more certain than that they will not read at all, unless materials are placed before them which are calculated to arouse their interest and enchain their attention.
The practical problem, therefore, to be solved is, to furnish a selection of works which will appeal to that dominant principle in the human breast—the love of pleasure. The aim of the Editor of the 'ENTERTAINING LIBRARY' is to provide an ample and varied repast for the gratification of this instinct. The concentration of his efforts upon this single point will give the present series of books its distinctive character.
A glance at the sources upon which he has already drawn will, it is believed, convince those who are acquainted with English literature, that such volumes as the 'ENTERTAINING LIBRARY' promises to contain will necessarily tend to enlarge the intellectual views, and to direct and strengthen the moral sentiments of every reader. But the prime end kept in view will be to afford, in a wide and liberal sense, pleasure and amusement; and to this end whatever bears more directly upon the practical utilities of life will invariably be held subordinate.
..........
PREFACE
THE primary object of the present little volume is to amuse—to supply an agreeable and innocent recreation in moments of leisure or of languor. A short and pointed anecdote acts like a tonic on the mind, and, in helping to cultivate a sense of humour, is by no means to be despised, even in an educational point of view.
But the book has a more directly didactic object, namely, to supply materials for lessons in composition. On this head a few words of explanation may be necessary. The gap between formal grammar and practical composition is so wide, that a pupil may be well versed in the one, and yet unskilful and inaccurate in the other. “What child,” says a writer in the Times (April 23, 1862) “has the least idea that the dry rules of grammar are intended to govern his own language at all. The repulsive terminology of the parts of speech and syntax, may be a convenient shorthand for learned grammarians, but to a beginner it is nothing but a jargon of mystical sounds. When a boy has learnt his letters and can put syllables together, let him be set to read a simple narrative; and his ear will soon tell him that one form of an expression is right and that another would be wrong.” Correct writing, like correct speaking, is best taught by imitation, in actual practice. It is much more profitable that the pupil should learn reasons “as he feels the want of them,” than that he should be crammed with rules the use of which he cannot as yet understand.
The present selection includes only such subjects as are within the reach of an average capacity, and as appeal to the sympathies of an ordinary mind, while the pieces are so short as not to overtax the pupil's power of attention. When the imagination is once roused, and the points of a story are securely fixed in the mind, the difficulties of writing a composition are, to a large extent, only mechanical, and easily surmounted by a little practice.
It is recommended that a story should be read over several times, once or twice aloud in a clear and distinct tone; and that then the book should be closed, and the story either spoken or written in the same or different words. Where a convenient opportunity presents itself, the teacher is of course expected to give what technical information he may consider necessary, and, when the exercise is completed, he should give a critical lesson, pointing out defects and dwelling with approbation on the merits of successful attempts. In this way it is believed that the pupil will acquire an earlier and more thorough practical command of his language, than if he were led, or dragged, through a more elaborate, artificial, and ambitious course of lessons on what is called English Composition.
© Copyright 2013 Brian Barratt
To read more of Brian's entertaining and thought-provoking words please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/the_scrivener/
And do visit his Web site
www.alphalink.com.au/~umbidas/
