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Manuals
Conduct of Christian Schools:
FIRST PART - Chapter 3 (continued)
SCHOOL PRACTICES AND THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY ARE TO BE CARRIED OUT
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CHAPTER 3
Studies
ARTICLE 7
Charts of Vowels and Consonants, of Punctuation
and Accents, and of Numerals
Students who are studying the third book will be taught to recognize the vowels and the consonants and to distinguish them from one another. They will be taught the reason why some letters are called vowels and others are called consonants. They will also be instructed concerning the pauses that must be made at a period, a colon, a semicolon, and a comma. They will be taught the reasons for and the differences among these signs.
They will be taught the significance of an interrogation mark, of an exclamation mark, of parentheses, of a hyphen, of the two dots over an e, an i, or a u, and the reason why all of these are used. They will be taught the different abbreviations and their meanings and the three different accents, the reasons for which they are used and what they signify. They will likewise be taught to read the numerals both French and Roman at least up to 100,000, and in various combinations.
There must be for this purpose in each classroom two charts. One will contain separately the vowels and consonants; above each consonant will be the syllable which is pronounced in naming this consonant. On this chart will also be the different punctuation marks for words and sentences, that is to say, the apostrophe, parentheses, the hyphen, the two dots over ë, ď, or ü, the three different accents, and the abbreviations of words in all the forms in which they may be found. The other chart will contain separately and in columns the French and Roman numerals, at least up to 100,000.
To teach these things at the beginning of the lesson in the third book, one half hour in the afternoon twice each week will be taken.
On the first day of the week, during this half hour all that is on the first chart will be taught. It will be done in the following manner.
The teacher will have several students one after another explain different difficulties and the reasons for each as the teacher points them out on the chart.
While one student is explaining, the others will look at the chart and pay attention. In this way, they will better understand and retain what is being said.
The teacher will take care from time to time to question some other students on the same subject, in this way ascertaining both whether they are paying attention to what their companion is saying and whether they understand it.
In the afternoon of the day following a holiday or on the third school day of each week when there is no holiday, the numerals will be taught in the same way. In places where there are only two classes, the charts will be recited by the students of the writing class on Fridays instead of arithmetic.
Those who are learning to read Latin will study both in the morning and in the afternoon except on the days when they learn the vowels and numerals. On those days, they will not read in the afternoon after having read in the third book.
Those who are learning to write will read only Latin in the morning and French in the afternoon. Only about two pages will be assigned as a lesson each day. The readers by syllables will read about six lines; those who read with pauses will read about ten lines. The teacher will take care to teach the students who are beginning to read Latin the manner of pronouncing it correctly, since the pronunciation of Latin differs in several respects from the pronunciation of French. The teacher will make them understand above all that all the letters are pronounced in Latin and that all the syllables which begin with g or g are pronounced otherwise than in French, as is indicated at the end of the treatise on pronunciation.
The teacher will explain to the students those things which concern Latin pronunciation while they are reading, as has been indicated in respect to French.
ARTICLE IX
The Book on Christian Civility
When the students both know how to read French perfectly and are in the third level of Latin reading, they will be taught to write and they will also be taught to read the book la Civilité chrétienne.
This book contains all the duties of children both toward God and toward their parents and the rules of civil and Christian decorum. It is printed in Gothic characters, which are more difficult to read than French characters.
They will not spell, and they will not read by syllables in this book; but all those to whom it is given will always read with continuity and with pauses.
This book will be read only in the morning. One chapter or as far as the first division or asterisk will be assigned for each lesson. The beginners will read at least four lines; the more advanced will read at least ten lines.
ARTICLE X
Documents
When the students are in the fourth section of round hand writing or are beginning the third section of inclined hand writing, they will be taught to read papers or parchments written by hand and called documents or records or something similar. At first, they will be given the easiest to read. Then they will be given the less easy ones. Afterward, they will be given the more difficult ones as they advance and so on until they are capable of reading the most difficult writing that they may encounter.
No student will be permitted to bring from home any document to read in school without the order of the Director. Each teacher of the writing class should know perfectly how to read all kinds of papers written by hand. Above all, the teacher should have read and studied well those which are in the classroom; and the Director should make sure that the teacher knows how to read them perfectly.
Those documents which are of equal difficulty are ordinarily written by the same person using the same type of lettering. This is especially true of those consisting of only one sheet or leaf, such as writs, receipts, and notes of hand. Therefore, it is very useful to have the students learn at once to read all the writings of any one writer. In this way, the form of this writer's characters and abbreviations will have impressed themselves on their imaginations, and they will have no further difficulty in reading them. By this means, the most difficult and confused writing will become very easy for them.
Documents will be read twice that week at the beginning of school in the afternoon of the first and fifth school day, if there are no holy days of obligation in the week. If, however, there is a holy day which does not fall on a Wednesday or if there are two holy days in the week, documents will be read on the first and fourth school day.
The students will read one after another. They will come before the teacher in turn two by two and in the order in which they are seated on the benches. In this way, all those of one bench will come in succession and be followed by those of the next bench or the one behind it.
The beginners will read about 30 words. Those of the more advanced levels will read about ten words more than those of the preceding level. Thus the amount read will be increased by ten words for each successive level.
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