The Dictionary In The Schoolroom

Being interested in all Ihat pertains to the success and usefulness of our public schools, we would cali the attention of educators to the value of early training in the use of language and the need of more thorough instruction in the knowledge of words. We inean the English language, and for the most part, good old AngloSaxon word. We are constrained to believe that in far (oo inany echools the ability to name words rapidly as they occur in the reading lesson, in the geography or the history is allowed to suffice as the full nieasure of instruction in the department of language, and the pupils thu8 pass to other fields without the ability to either correctly spell or properly pronounce the words they have used, and with no knowledge at all of their true signification or wealth of naeaning. The derivation or history of a word as found in the dictionary often opens up a most delightful field for study and investigation, and through this the learner's ambition to attain greater power and fluency in the use of words might be incited. We believe that the learned man is most clearly distinguished from the ignorant by his greater command of language andwider knowledge of the power of words. What belter field can there be, then, for the development of a greater usefulness on the part of our public schools than through a larger and more intelligent study of our own vocabulary ? Fortunately we have a standard authority for the meaningand use of English words, a recognized and universally conceded court of last resort, an open " Webster," where are recorded for the use of all, the decisions of the best writers and speakers upon the correct usage of every item that goes to make up the beautiful whole of our mother tongue. We believe that our public schools will attain a greater usefulness, and be more successful in teaching language just in the ratio that they send iheir pupils to the dictionary with more frequency, teaching them to study its record more intelligently and abide by its decisions more steadfastly. It needsno argument to prove that eyery schoolroom should be supplied with a copy of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, as the foundation for improved language work. As a further rneans to this desirable end, we can make no better recommendation than that every pupil should acquire the habit of constant reference to authority by haviDg at his desk a copy of an abridged edition of Webster, and that every teacher should be competent to give instruction in its proper use. Without disparaging the otherabridgments, we regard Webster's Academie Dictionary as the best of all for the hourly use of pupils, and when it is remembered that its usefulness will survive the pupil's school days, and in the absence of the unabridged, become the family dictionary, it is not too much to sy that it should be found on the desk of every pupil in our schools above the most primary grades.