Chapter IV: Oral Reading

If the pupil is to enjoy logical and consistent development in expression, he must be taught along psychological lines. Teachers should never lose sight of the fact that what is good for one pupil is not always good for another. It is impossible to set down a set of rules which will govern alike all pupils. Only that teacher is worthy of the name who recognizes that every pupil presents more or less a separate problem.

TEACHER’S FIRST GREAT TASK

The teacher’s first important task is to render the pupil rightly disposed. Some pupils are at once extremely anxious to be governed by the wisdom of their teachers, while others are skeptical and must serve an apprenticeship in imitation. Still others are perverse and must be coerced. It is the patient and long-suffering teacher whose highest hopes will be realized.

WHAT IS EXPRESSION?

What is expression? We are told that all life is expression: The sudden summer shower, the leap of the wild cataract, the springing forth of early flowers, and the slow motion of the glacier all represent Nature expressing herself. The musician over the keyboard, the painter at his easel, the writer at his desk, represent art expressing herself. This is all true. But what about mankind as a whole, what about the vast majority of people who are not endowed with genius? Have they no universal and common mode of expression?

GREATEST EDUCATIONAL VALUE

Here lies the great educational value of oral reading, of expressive speech. Their appeal should be universal and not confined to a talented few. It were better that those who have native ability were wholly neglected and allowed to express themselves in their own way, than that the vast majority have no training at all. It is the ungifted who should be aided rather than those who have been especially endowed by Nature.

THE DESIRE TO EXPRESS

The desire to express is common to all humanity from infancy to old age. The true aim of education should be to “draw out” that which is within us; in other words, to express ourselves—physically, mentally and spiritually. The world’s great personalities are those who have the greatest freedom of expression. They have mastered the power to reveal their inmost selves. They have profited by the truth that through exercise we grow. So we should continually aim to free those channels through which we communicate ourselves to the outside world, in order that our highest faculties be unshackled and be given perfect freedom.

THE CHANNELS OF EXPRESSION

Let us consider briefly what are the chief avenues or channels of revealing what we are to others. Our first means is by movements of a part or all of the body. This we call the Physical Channel. Later in the development of man the location of sound in the throat was made. Man noted that when he experienced a certain mood, unconsciously he gave vent to a corresponding guttural noise or sound. This is called the Sound or Tone Channel. Lastly, man invented sound symbols—words. That is, certain vocal sounds represented certain objects and ideas. This we call the Word Channel.

MERGING OF THE CHANNELS

To sum up, we have three separate ways by which we can express what we think and feel. It is very important that the pupil, as well as the teacher, keep this fact in mind. If we are to be natural and successful in giving out what we really are, these three means must coördinate, must act harmoniously. That is, the body, or Physical Channel, must parallel the Word Channel, and the Tone Channel must parallel the Physical and Word Channel. Each must bear witness to the truth uttered by the other. When the fullness of each, freighted with human meaning, overflows, there is a merging of all three. The result is natural and intense expression. Our supreme purpose is to realize this triune of man’s expressive powers.