how they ought to divide other polysyllable words in which they must alwayes be very carefull as I said to sound out the last syllable very fully To enable a child the better to pronounce any word he meets withall in reading I have set down some more hard for pronuntiation Sect. 14 in often reading over which he may be exercised to help his utterance and the Master may adde more at his own discretion till he see that his willing Scholar doth not stick in spelling any be it never so hard And that the child may not be amused with any thing in his book when he cometh to read I would have him made acquainted with the pauses Sect. 15. with the figures Sect. 16. numerall letters Sect. 17. Quotations Sect. 18. and Abbreviations Sect. 19 which being but a work of few houres space may easily be performed after he can readily spell which when he can do he may profitably be put to reading but not before for I observed it a great defect in some of Mr. R. Scholars whose way was to teach to read presently without any spelling at all that when they were at a losse about a word they made an imperfect confused sound in giving the force of the consonants which if they once missed they knew not which way to help themselves to find what the word was whereas if after a childe know his letters he be taught to gather them into just syllables and by the joyning of syllables together to frame a word which as it is the most antient so certainely it is the most naturall method of teaching he will soon be able if he stick at any word in reading by the naming of its letters and pronouncing of its syllables to say what it is and then he may boldly venture to read without spelling at all touching the gaining of a habit whereof I shall proceed to say somewhat in the next chapter Chap. IIII. How a child may be taught to read any English Book perfectly THe ordinary way to teach children to read is after they have got some knowledge of their letters a smattering of some syllables and words in the horn-book to turn them into the ABC or Primar and therein to make them name the letters and spell the words till by often use they can pronounce at least the shortest words at the first sight This method take's with those of prompter wits but many of more slow capacities not finding any thing to affect them and so make them heed what they learne go on remissely from lesson to lesson and are not much more able to read when they have ended their book then when they begun it Besides the ABC being now I may say generally thrown aside and the ordinary Primar not printed and the very fundamentalls of christian Religion which were wont to be contained in those books and were commonly taught children at home by heart before they went to Schoole with sundry people almost in all places slighted the matter which is taught in most books now in use is not so familiar to them and therefore not so easie for Children to learn But to hold still to the sure foundation I have caused the Lords Prayer Sect. 20. the Creed Sect. 21. and the ten Commandements Sect. 23. to be printed in the Roman character that a childe having learned already to know his letters and how to spell may also be initiated to read by them which he will do the more cheerfully if he be also instructed at home to say them by heart As he read's these I would have a childe name what words he can at the first sight and what he cannot to spell them and to take notice what pauses and numbers are in his lesson And to go them often over till he can tell any tittle in them either in or without the book When he is thus well entered in the Roman character I would have him made acquainted with the rest of the characters now in use Sect. 23. which will be easily done by comparing one with another and reading over those sentences Psalms Thankesgivings and Prayers which are printed in greater and lesse characters of sundry sorts till he have them pretty well by heart Thus having all things which concerne reading English made familar to him he may attaine to a perfect habit of it 1. By reading the single Psalter 2. The Psalmes in meeter 3. The Schoole of good manners or such like easie books which may both profit and delight him All which I would wish he may read over at lest thrice to make the matter as well as the words leave an impression upon his mind If anywhere he stick at any word as seeming too hard let him marke it with a pin or the dint of his nayle and by looking upon it againe he will remember it When he can read any whit readily let him begin the Bible and read over the book of Genesis and other remarkable Histories in other places of Scripture which are most likely to delight him by a chapter at a time But acquaint him a little with the matter beforehand for that will intice him to read it and make him more observant of what he read's After he hath read aske him such generall Questions out of the Story as are most easie for him to answer and he will the better remember it I have known some that by hiring a child to read two or three chapters a day and to get so many verses of it by heart have made them admirable proficients and that betimes in the Scriptures which was Timothies excellency and his Grand-mothers great commendation Let him now take liberty to exercise himself in any English book so the matter of it be but honest till he can perfectly read in any place of a book that is offered him and when he can do this I adjudge him fit to enter into a Grammar Schoole but not before For thus learning to read English perfectly I allow two or three years time so that at seven or eight years of age a child may begin Latine CHAP. V. Wherein children for whom the Latine tongue is thought to be unnecessary are to be employed after they can read English well IT is a fond conceit of many that have either not attained or by their own negligence have utterly lost the use of the Latine Tongue to think it altogether unnecessary for such children to learn it as are intended for Trades or to be kept as drudges at home or employed about husbandry For first there are few children but in their playing-years and before they can be capable of any serious employment in the meanest calling that is may be so far grounded in the Latine as to finde that little smattering they have of it to be of singular use to them both for the understanding of the English Authors which abound now a dayes with borrowed words and the holding discourse with a sort of men that delight to flant it in
THE Petty Schoole SHEWING A way to teach little Children to read English with delight and profit especially according to the New Primar By C. H. LONDON Printed by J. T. for Andrew Crook at the Green Dragon in Pauls Church Yard 1659. THE Petty Schoole CHAP. I. How a childe may be helped in the first pronounciation of his Letters MY aim being to discover the old Art of teaching Schoole and how it may be improved in every part suteable to the years and capacities of such children as are now commonly taught I shall first begin my discourse concerning a petty-Schoole here or else where I shall not busie my self or Reader about what a childe of an extraordinary towardliness and having a teacher at home may attain unto and in how short a space but onely shew how a multitude of various wits may be taught all together with abundance of profit and delight to every one wch is the proper and main work of our ordinary Schooles Whereas then it is usual in Cities and greater Towns to put children to Schoole about four or five years of age and in Country villages because of further distance not till about six or seven I conceive The sooner a child is put to School the better it is both to prevent ill habits which are got by play and idleness and to enure him betimes to affect learning and well doing Not to say how the great uncertainty of parents lives should make them careful of their Childrens early education which is like to be the best part of their patrimony what ever good thing else they may leave them in this World I observe that betwixt three and four years of age a childe hath great propensity to peep into a book and then is the most seasonable time if conveniences may be had otherwise for him to begin to learn and though perhaps then he cannot speak so very distinctly yet the often pronounciation of his letters will be a means to help his speech especially if one take notice in what organ or instrument he is most defective and exercise him chiefly in those letters which belong unto it Now there are five organs or instruments of speech in the right hitting of which as the breath moveth from within through the mouth a true pronunciation of every letter is made viz. the lips the teeth the tongue the roof of the mouth and the throat According to which if one rank the twenty four letters of our English Alphabet he shall find that A E I O V proceed by degrees from the throat along betwixt the tongue and the roof of the mouth to the lips contracted and that Y is somewhat like I being pronounced with other letters but if it be named by it self it requireth some motion of the lips B F M P W and V consonant belong to the lips C S X Z to the teeth D L N T R to the tongue B H K Q to the roof of the mouth But the sweet and natural pronunciation of them is gotten rather by imitation then precept and therefore the teacher must be careful to give every letter its distinct and clear sound that the childe may get it from his voice and be sure to make the child open his mouth well as he uttereth a letter lest otherwise he drown or hinder the sound of it For I have heard some foreiners to blame us English-men for neglecting this mean to a plain and audible speaking saying that the cause why we generally do not speak so fully as they proceeded from an ill habit of mumbling which children got at their first learning to read which it was their care therfore to prevent or remedy betimes and so it should be ours seeing Pronounciation is that that sets out a man and is sufficient of it self to make one an Oratour Chap. II. How a childe may be taught with delight to know all his letters in a very little time THe usual way to begin with a child when he is first brought to Schoole is to teach him to know his letters in the Horn-book where he is made to run over all the letters in the Alphabet or Christ-cross-row both forwards backwards until he can tel any one of them which is pointed at and that in the English character This course we see hath been very effectual in a short time with some more ripe witted children but othres of a slower apprehension as the most and best commonly are have been thus learning a whole year together and though they have been much chid and beaten too for want of heed could scarce tell six of their letters at twelve moneths end who if they had been taught in a way more agreeable to their meane apprehensions wch might have wrought more readily upon the senses and affected their mindes with what they did would doubtlesse have learned as cheerfully if not as fast as the quickest I shall therefore mention sundry ways that have been taken to make a childe know his letters readily out of which the discreet Teacher may chuse what is most likely to suit with his Learner I have known some that according to Mr. Brinslâ—y's direction have taught little ones to pronounce all the letters and to spell pretty well before they knew one letter in a book and this they did by making the childe to sound the five vowels a e i o u like so many bells upon his fingers ends and to say which finger was such or such a vowel by changes 2 Then putting single consonants before the vowels leaving the hardest of them till the last and teaching him how to utter them both at once as va ve vi vo vu da de di do du 3. and again by putting the vowels before a consonant to make him say as es is os us ad ed id od ud Thus they have proceeded from syllables of two or three or more letters till a child hath been pretty nimble in the most But this is rather to be done in a private house then a publick Schoole how ever this manner of exercise now and then amongst little Scholars will make their lessons more familiar to them The greatest trouble at the first entrance of children is to teach them how to know their letters one from another when they see them in the book altogether for the greatnesse of their number and variety of shape do puzle young wits to difference them and the sence can but be intent upon one single object at once so as to take its impression and commit it to the imagination and memory Some have therefore begun but with one single letter and after they have shewed it to the childe in the Alphabet have made him to finde the same anywhere else in the book till he knew that perfectly and then they have proceeded to another in like manner and so gone through the rest Some have contrived a piece of ivory with twenty four flats or squares in every one of which
was engraven a several letter and by playing with a childe in throwing this upon a table and shewing him the letter onely which lay uppermost have in few dayes taught him the whole Alphabet Some have got twenty four pieces of ivory cut in the shape of dice with a letter engraven upon each of them and with these they have played at vacant hours with a childe till he hath known them all distinctly They begin first with one then with two afterwards with more letters at once as the childe got knowledge of them To teach him likewise to spell they would place consonants before or after a vowel and then joyn more letters together so as to make a word and sometimes divide it into syllables to be parted or put together now this kind of letter sport may be profitably permitted among you beginers in a School in stead of ivory they may have white bits of wood or small shreads of paper or past-board or parchment with a letter writ upon each to play withall amongst themselves Some have made pictures in a little book or upon a scroll of paper wrapt upon two sticks within a box of iceing-glass and by each picture have made three sorts of that letter with which its name beginneth but those being too many at once for a childe to take notice on have proved not so useful as was intended Some likewise have had pictures and letters printed in this manner on the back side of a pack of cards to entice children that naturally love that sport to the love of learning their books Some have writ a letter in a great character upon a card or chalked it out upon a trencher and by telling a child what it was and letting him strive to make the like have imprinted it quickly in his memory and so the rest one after another One having a Son of two years and a half old that could but even go about the house and utter some few gibberish words in a broken manner observing him one day above the rest to be busied about shells and sticks and such like toys which himself had laid together in a chair and to misse any one that was taken from him he saw not how and to seek for it about the house became very desireous to make experiment what that childe might presently attain to in point of learning Thereupon he devised a little wheel with all the Capital Romane letters made upon a paper to wrap round about it and fitted it to turn in little a round box which had a hole so made in the side of it that onely one letter might be seen to peep out at once This he brought to the childe showed him onely the letter O and told him what it was The childe being overjoyed with his new gamball catcheth the box out of his Fathers hand and run's with it to his playfellow a year younger then himself and in his broken language tell's him there was an O an O And when the other asked him where he said in a hole in a hole and shewed it him which the lesser childe then took such notice of as to know it againe ever after from all the other letters And thus by playing with the box and enquiring concerning any letter that appeared strange to him what it was the childe learnt all the letters of the Alphabet in eleven dayes being in this Character A B C and would take pleasure to shew them in any book to any of his acquaintance that came next By this instance you may see what a propensity there is in nature betimes to learning could but the Teachers apply themselves to their young Scholars tenuity and how by proceeding in a cleare facil method that all may apprehend every one may benefit more or less by degrees According to these contrivances to forward children I have published a New Primâ—r in the first leafe whereof I have set the Roman Capitalls because that Character is now most in use those letters the most easie to be learn't and have joyned therewith the pictures or images of some things whose names begins with that letter by which a childs memory may be helped to remember how to call his letters as A for an Ape B. for a Bear c. This Hieroglyphicall devise doth so affect Children who are generally forward to communicate what they know that I have observed them to teach others that could not so readily learn to know all the letters in a few houres space by asking them what stands A. for and so concerning other letters backwards and forwards or as they best liked Thus when a childe hath got the names of his letters their several shapes withall in a playing manner he may be easily taught to distinguish them in the following leaf which containeth first the greater and then the smaller Roman Characters to be learned by five at once or more as the childe is able to remember them other Characters I would have forborn till one be well acquainted with these because so much variety at the first doth but amaze young wits and our English characters for the most part are very obscure more hard to be imprinted in the memory And thus much for the learning to know letters we shall next and according to Order in Teaching proceed to an easie way of distinct spelling Chap III. How to teach a childe to spell distinctly THe common way of teaching a childe to spell is after he know's the letters in his Alphabet to initiate him in those few syllables which consist of one vowell before a consonant as ab eb ib ob ub c. or of one vowel after a consonant as ba be bi bo bu c. in the Horn-book thence to proceed with him by little and little to the bottom of the book hereing him twice or thrice over till he can say his lesson and then putting him to a new one In which course I have known some more apt children to have profited prety well but scarce one often when they have gone thorow the book to be able to spell a word that is not in it And some have been certaine years daily exercised in saying lessons therein who after much endeavour spent have been accounted meer block-heads and rejected alltogether as uncapable to learn any thing whereas some Teachers that have assayed a more familiar way have professed that they have not met with any such thing as a Dunse amid a great multitude of little Schollars Indeed it is Tullies observation of old and Erasmus his assertion of latter years that it is as natural for a childe to learn as it is for a beast to go a bird to fly or a fish to swim and I verily beleeve it for the nature of man is restlessely desirous to know things and were discouragements taken out of the way and meet helps afforded young learners they would doubtless go on with a great deal more cherefulness and make