THE ABlllTV TO READ Iiy

studied. Unfortunately it is not untrue to say that a great many
of the questions asked in schools involve little more than the
reproduction of unimportant items of information beyond which
nothing more may have been gleaned from a rich field. The
reading-books that are now becoming popular abound in this
sort of question. The reason, we jnay suppose, is that the teacher
must be provided with a sure and easy method of detecting those
children who do not do as they are told when set to read by
themselves. Here, for example, are some questions on Rob Roy
which show what is meant :

'a) Where was Rashleigh Osbaldistone educated ?

b] What was the name of Diana Vernon's horse ?

c) Who painted the portrait of Diana's grandfather?

(d) Which Scottish crag is visible from Osbaldistone castle ?

(e) Where was St Mungo's steeple?

These are questions that may, or may not, discover the children
who have waded through the story conscientiously. Yet who is
the wiser for being able to answer them? When such questions
appear in any number in a question paper we may be pretty
sure that it is not the educationalist who has been at work but
the police.

On the other hand, when the young reader is invited to outline
a sequence of events in a story, to select the best paragraph
heading from among a number suggested as suitable, or to frame
a suitable heading for himself, to state what an author. is trying
to prove and make a short summary of the arguments which he
employs to this end, the extent to which he successfully meets
these demands upon his reading powers will be a reliable index
of the degree to which he is being trained to read to some purpose
and independently of his teachers.

25. THE SELF-POSED QUESTION
The most important kind of question educationally is the
self-posed question. Our own peculiar difficulties and meeds
cannot always be discovered through questions set by some one
else. Indeed, unless we read wanting to gain something definite
from our reading we shall not develop any genuine reading skill.
It is in solving our own problems .that we learn to think for
ourselves. Consequently, to get children to pose questions, for
themselves about the things they feel they ought to know "better
is the fourth and most important Step in the task of teaching
them how to study. To find the answers to such' questions will
involve the use, as a rule, of more than one book, but this will
give a training compared with which the searching for answers