Thinking and learning to think, Nathan C. Schaeffer [each kindness read aloud txt] 📗
- Author: Nathan C. Schaeffer
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There is another limitation to the kind of public speaking which partakes of the nature of oratory. The idea which the speaker seeks to have realized in the vote, or verdict, or conduct of others, must be carried back to the necessary ideas of the hearer. The full discussion of this peculiarity in the stream of thought belongs to treatises on rhetoric. Such a discussion can be found in Theremin’s Rhetoric, translated by Shedd. Suffice it to say that the recognition of this principle makes the speaker a more thoughtful man. It causes him to rely for the effect he seeks to produce upon solid and sterling qualities rather than showy rhetoric. It tends to make the stream of thought flow deeper, fuller, yet clearer and with more power. Any interference with the stream of thought while the speaker is before the audience may be disastrous. The crying of a child, or an outburst of feeling in the audience, or some other mishap may disconcert his mind. Legouvé tells how the world-renowned advocate, Berryer, lost a very good cause by unconsciously starting his speech in too high a key. “His temples soon felt the unusual fatigue of the larynx; from the temples it passed to the brain; the strain being too great, the brain gave way; the thought became confused, and the language disarranged and indistinct.” He broke down in open court because he never thought of descending from the lofty perch on which his voice started at the beginning of his plea. Legouvé claims, and the experience of many speakers confirms the claim, that the abuse of the high notes has not infrequently affected injuriously the orator’s very flow of thought.
Three generals made stump speeches on a joint trip during the last Presidential campaign. One day the name of the candidate of the other great political party was mentioned, when there was a perfect storm of applause in the gallery. A second reference elicited similar applause, and the disconcerted general, who had bravely faced the enemy on the battle-field, took his seat. The next general, walking on a crutch, came forward, and requested that all who had been sent to disturb the meeting should rise. Ho one moved. He exclaimed, “There are some cowards here.” Then he asked that all who had come to listen and learn should rise. Everybody rose. He exclaimed, “There are some liars here.” Next he announced that any one attempting to disturb the meeting would be pitched out of doors, the general on the crutch declaring he would lead the attack. Soon a man arose as if to ask a question. Whereupon a big burly policeman threw the fellow out, and there was no further outside interference with the stream of thought in the mind of speaker or listeners. The man on the platform always has the advantage over disturbers in the audience, provided he is master of his faculties, full of resources, and quick at repartee.
The schools of France have been quoted to show the uselessness of exercises in oral reading. As in other things, so in school matters, distance lends enchantment to the view. Legouvé, in his lectures on the “Art of Reading,” mentions with approval that in the great Republic of North America reading aloud is justly considered one of the very first elements of a child’s education, whilst in France, reading aloud does not reach even the sorry dignity of a diverting art, but is regarded as a curiosity, a luxury, often something hardly better than a pretension.[43] This was written several decades ago, and may not be just to the French nation at this time. The value of oral reading depends upon the way in which it is done. If it amounts to no more than calling words and parrot-like imitation of the teacher’s manner of reading, the exercise is a waste of time. The mastery of the new words and of the thought embodied should precede the attempt to read a lesson aloud. The mastery of the words involves ability to recognize them at sight, to pronounce them with fluency and ease, and to spell them by letter and by sound. It implies both a knowledge of their meaning and ability to use them in a sentence. An average series of readers has a vocabulary of five thousand words. The meaning of all these words may be known at sight, but ability to use them by tongue or pen is quite another thing, the vocabulary of most persons being not much in excess of a thousand words. The thought can be mastered by an exercise in silent reading, followed by the oral and written reproduction of the lesson. The mastery of the thought is a condition of proper vocal utterance.
There is a difference between acting and reading. The actor endeavors to speak and act after the exact manner of the character whom he impersonates. The reader aims to suggest the thought instead of imitating the original actors. An actor will go through the motion of stabbing or shooting an enemy; the reader simply aims to suggest the thought of what was done. Exercises in breathing, gesture, tone, pitch, cadence, voice may be needed for the sake of correcting defects; nevertheless, everything connected with oral reading should turn on and culminate in the stream of thought. If anything else is made the object of chief regard, the main purpose of oral reading is lost. It furnishes an excellent test by means of which the teacher can determine whether the pupil understands what he reads or is merely calling words after the manner of a parrot. To correct the unnatural tones acquired in the school-room, the pupil is wisely exhorted to read as he would talk. In the effort to develop a style of reading exactly like talking, some teachers ruin their natural way of talking and reading. In conversation, they talk as if they were trying to read. While reading, they seem to be trying to talk. The human voice is so made that it puts the quotation marks to selections recited from memory and to sentences read from a manuscript or book. As a rule, a person can read best what he himself has written; yet his voice tells whether his sentences and thoughts are framed and evolved at the moment of delivery, or taken from a manuscript prepared beforehand. As a matter of fact, no one can read as he talks or speaks. A blindfolded listener could tell when Spurgeon was reading or speaking. The same was true of Charles Sumner, and of every other great speaker America has produced.
To think the best thoughts of the best men is the privilege of him who can read. To plant these thoughts in other minds by reading aloud is a noble achievement. To give in speech something from our own resources that others shall treasure is nobler still, because it links our life with the creative workers of the world. But noblest of all is it to write what shall be read by our own and future generations, in our own and other lands, as a source of light and life, of uplift and enjoyment. The worst punishment that can befall a human being is to be cut off from participation in the movement of the race towards greater well-being and perfection. One naturally desires to employ his gifts and powers for the benefit of mankind. The stream of thought determines what we shall accomplish. If others are to be benefited by our thinking, they must think our thoughts. The stream of our thought must carry ideas of interest and value to them, ideas they will care to get and keep. If our thinking is busy with things of transient interest, transient will be our influence over others. If our thought is to abide, it must deal with verities of eternal moment to humanity, with the works of Him who made the heavens and the earth, with the truth of Him who is “the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.”
XVIKINDS OF THINKING
“What we want is not the example of Democritus, who put out his eyes that, ceasing to read, he might think the more; or the example of Pythagoras, who devoted his evenings to solemn reflections on the events of the day. We want men and women of all-round activities who will set apart an hour for thought’s own sake, and thus fulfil the exhortation of a wise man whose practice it was to ‘sort his thoughts and label them.’”
T. S. Knowlson.
“People read a great deal more than they used to do,—there is more to be read,—but they think less. The chief danger of to-day is that of intellectual apathy. Life is so complex, the struggle for existence is so keen, and pleasures of various kinds so cheap and abundant, that men and women seem to live entirely on the surface of things. What we need is a call to independent thought.”
Ibid.
XVIKINDS OF THINKING
As was pointed out in the first chapter, the word thinking has several meanings. One can hardly write or speak on education without using the word in more senses than one, and it is not always convenient to break the line of thought or discussion by indicating with a definition the meaning intended. This is a violation of Pascal’s rule, that no terms in the least obscure or equivocal shall be used without defining them. Pascal possessed one of the most remarkable intellects the world has ever known. His style has been described as a garment of light. Few thinkers have attained, to an equal degree, clearness of expression and perfect grasp of the truth. Nowhere are these qualities more essential than in lectures and treatises on teaching. It is a misfortune that so useful a word as thinking should ever be ambiguous. The use of equivocal terms leads to misunderstandings in theory and faults in practice. The advantage of technical terms lies in the fact that after they have been clearly defined they can always be used in the same sense. The disadvantage in the use of technical terms is that they convey no meaning to minds unfamiliar with the terminology of the specific science to which they belong. Hence the best thinkers cannot escape the necessity of employing words in current use to convey their thoughts. As soon as words pass into common parlance they acquire a variety of meanings and of shades of meaning. The thought of a people is always more or less in advance of their vocabulary; the same word must be used in several meanings, because no other term equally simple and convenient can serve as a substitute. No one, for instance, can write or speak in the English language without using the word is in both its figurative and its literal sense. The connection must show what signification is intended. The same remark applies to the word thinking. The connection must show whether it is used in the colloquial sense of guessing, or in the logical sense of a comparison of two ideas through their relation to a third, or in the broader sense of imaging, reflecting, and
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